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THE 



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., far religious rebibal. 



“I CREATED LIGHT AND DARKNESS; AND I CREATE GOOD AND EVIL, SAITH THE 

Lord."— Isaiah, abridged, xlv. 


BOSTON: 

WILLIAM WHITE AND COMPANY, 

BANNER OF LIGHT OFFICE, 

158 Washington Street. 

NEW YORK: BRANCH OFFICE, 544 BROADWAY. 

1869. 

» 






. 9=6 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 

JOSEPH S. SILVER, 

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 


Boston : 

William White & Co., Stereotypers and Printers. 



PREFACE. 


The Gospels of Christianity expressly state that they are not a 
final revelation. Many things were left for future revelation 
when the world should be ready to receive them. 

“ The Gospel of Good and Evil ” reveals the mystery of evil in 
the world; for this age is ready to receive it. The Mosaic revela¬ 
tion taught that revengeful retribution is the law of God as 
between man and his fellow. The Christian revelation teaches an 
opposite doctrine. From this conflict we are led to deduce the 
law of all revelations. No revelation is final and unchangeable; 
but new increments of divine instruction are and ever will be 
given as the increased enlightenment of mankind prepares us for 
their acceptance. 

In our Gospels, as well as in the Bible of the Hebrews, no satis¬ 
fying revelation is made of the reason why evil exists in the world, 
what its nature is, and its purpose in the economy of Providence. 
This seems to be one of the things which the founder of our 
religion included among those which his disciples were not ready 
to receive. We are inspired with the admonition that the time 
has come when mankind requires a better insight into the mystery 
of evil. 

The moral world has entered upon a career of accelerated move¬ 
ment that generates increase of moral evil by increased collision. 
We require additional means for repression of these added evils; 
and a better knowledge of the nature of evil will tend to practical 
suggestions. 

Religion, when active, is a great represser of evil; and its power 
for good is proportioned to the faith and zeal that stimulate it. 

It is a sad calamity when belief in ecclesiastic dogmas falls 

3 



4 


PREFACE. 


away, ana people grow indifferent to religion; when the Church 
will make no concessions to win them back, and they are driven to 
seek new doctrine from new inspiration. The fact is patent to 
all men, and it is proclaimed from every pulpit, that some of the 
great dogmas are but inferences deduced from isolated texts of 
Scripture by primitive councils of an inferior age; that they are 
not plainly taught by our Gospels ; that they no longer command 
intelligent faith; and that this unbelief makes defection from 
religion. 

“ The Gospel of Good and Evil ” points out the doctrines that 
form the stumbling-block to intelligent consciences and to the prog¬ 
ress of religion. It shows that they are exactly such dogmas as 
are not essential to enforce Christian morality, virtue, or charity, 
nor to support the divine mission of our Saviour. It shows rea¬ 
sonable ground for supposing, that, if they were referred back to 
Scripture by a new council of this more enlightened age, they 
might honestly be changed by new interpretations that would be 
more acceptable; and that this is the only way to save our 
existing institutions from changes more radical and destructive. 
By timely concessions, the religious revolution of Luther might 
have been stayed; and the same spirit of concession is now 
invoked, that the coming reformation may not be revolutionary. It 
teaches that whatever concessions may be demanded for the resto¬ 
ration of general belief it is the interest of the Church to initi¬ 
ate, that the causes of honest infidelity be removed, that interest 
in religion be awakened by new formularies of doctrine, and that 
a new growth be given to earnest faith and Christian unity. In 
the providence of God, there is but one way to supplant a rooted 
error, viz., by substituting a new truth of more popular accepta¬ 
tion. This is what is proposed. 


INTRODUCTION. 


“ The Gospel of Good and Evil ” consists of a hundred and 
thirty-two short essays designed to illustrate the nature and uses 
of the various evils, each treated separately. In this it differs from 
other treatises on that subject. 

The conclusions deduced are, that good and evil are convertible 
terms, and that each is necessary to the existence of the other. 

There is no necessary connection between the essays, and no 
regard is paid to order of sequence. The book can be opened at 
any of its brief chapters, at moments of leisure; and it may be 
read from any starting-point without detriment to any connection 
with what precedes or follows. Occasionally the same idea ap¬ 
pears reiterated in different chapters. 

Physical evils are first examined. 

Moral evils follow. They will be found to be governed by one 
and the same law, and to be subservient to similar necessity; so 
that no clear line of separation can be drawn between them. 

The question is, How can we reconcile evil with the attributes 
of omnipotent wisdom and goodness ? Could not the same pur¬ 
poses have been effected without evil ? 

If evil be offensive to Deity, why does he permit its existence ? 
and, after death, what good purpose is served by investing evil 
with immortality, and perpetuating what is to be forever offending 
him ? 

This is what we have to investigate. 

& 









I * 

CONTENTS. 


PART FIRST.—PHYSICAL EVIL. 

Page. 

I. Physical Evil Defined.13 

II. Elementary Evil.14 

III. Storms and Floods. 15 

IV. Barren Mountains.18 

V. Compensation. 19 

VT. Consumption of Matter. 22 

VH. Earthquakes and Volcanoes. 24 

VIH. Darkness . 20 

IX. Parasitic Vermin.27 

X. The Rigors of Winter.29 

XI. Hunger.32 

XH. Disease and Pain . . . _,.32 

XIII. Death. 35 

XIV. Modes of Death. .39 

XV. Man’s Long Infancy, &c .41 

XVI. Rotation of the Wheel of Life.42 

XVTI. Immutability of Nature’s Laws.44 

XVTH. All Evil is a Law of Creation . . . , ... .45 

XIX. Evil is a Relative Term.46 

XX. No Good without Evil.47 

XXI. No Evil without Good ..48 

XXII. Abortive Struggles for Good without Evil.51 

XXHI. The Harmony of Nature.53 


PART SECOND. —MORAL EVIL. 

I. What is the Moral Law.57 

H. The Moral World also revolves ....... 59 

IH. Civilization and its Inevitable Evils.60 

IV. Overproduction. 61 

V V. The Labor Movement.62 

VI. “ Truth is mighty, and will prevail ” ..64 

VII. Gambling..,66 

VHI. Disparity of Condition •.67 


7 


































8 


CONTENTS 


Page. 


IX. Rich and Poor Men.68 

X. The Use of Rogues and Thieves.71 

XI. The Punishment of Crime.73 

XII. Petty Vexations.74 

XIII. Family Miffs.76 

XIV. The Condition of Ireland.76 

XV. Inferior Races. Slavery. Migration.78 

XVL Tobacco.. . 85 

XVH. Fashion.87 

XVIII. Theatres and Romances.89 

XIX. Slander.93 

XX. The Parable of the Good Word.97 

XXI. The Lonely Heart.98 

XXII. With every Good there is Moral Evil.100 

XXIII. Imaginary Evils; Anecdote (Beecher).103 

XXXV. Want of an Object in Life; Anecdote.104 

XXV. Intoxication . 105 

XXVI. Remedy for Intemperance.. . . 109 

XXVII. Is Drunkenness a Disease ?.113 

XXVIH. War ..114 

XXIX. Murder.117 


PART THIRD. —THE RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


I. Religion a Human Necessity.. . . 121 

II. Providence in all Religions.124 

III. Sectarian Dissensions.126 

IV. Indifference and Infidelity.127 

V. Religious Dogmas.128 

VT. The Newspaper.131 

VII. The Instinct of Progress.133 

VIII. The Pulpit.134 

IX. How to fill Churches.135 

X. Sin.137 

XI. Sinful Influences Congenital and National.138 

XH. Retribution of National Sins.141 

XIII. The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.144 

XIV. Purgatory. 147 

XV. The Universe Self-regulating. Is Man an Exception ? . . 149 

XVT. Good and Evil weighed in the Scales.151 

XVH. What was Man made for ?.152 

XVin. The Soul. 154 

XIX. An Objection.158 

XX. A Twin Soul . 159 

XXI. Immortality.161 

XXH. The Indian’s Faith in Hereafter; Anecdote .... 162 
XXIH. The Devil. 164 







































CONTENTS. 


9 


Page. 

XNTV. Satan traced in History.165 

XNV. The Female Principle excluded.169 

XXVI. The Church and the Coming Reformation.170 

XXVH. Modern Christianity weighed in the Balance .... 174 

XXVIII. Inspiration and Revelation.177 

XXIX. A New View of Retribution.181 

XXX. Scripture Metaphors.183 

XXXI. The Generation of Jesus. Matthew.187 

XXXII. The Generation of Jesus. Luke.190 

XXXin. Matthew and Luke compared.192 

XXXIV. The Old Testament and the New.198 

XXXV. Ancient Interpretations justify Review.200 

XXXVI. Courts of Conciliation.202 

XXXVII. Miracles.203 

XXXVIH. Evidence of Miracles.208 

XXXIX. How a Miracle gains Report.214 

XL. Analysis of a Miracle.215 

XLI. An Everliving Miracle.220 

XLH. Miracles according to their Effects.223 

XLIH. The Cosmogony of Genesis.226 

XLTV. The Miraculous Conception.228 

XLV. Instinct and Reason.232 

XLVI. Prayer.239 

XLVII. The Deity.245 

XLVHI. Prophecy ..248 

XLIX. Localities of Heaven and Hell.252 

L. Converting the Heathen.256 

LI. Heathen Religions.257 

LH. Concessions of the Fathers to Heathen Religions . . . 272 

LHI. Transmutation of Good and Evil.274 

LIV. Praising God.278 

LV. The Next World.280 

LVI. Gospel Changes.282 

LVH. How to review Dogmas of Interpretation.285 

LVTI1. Discrepancies requiring Review and Plain Statement . . 287 

LIX. Incredible Legends.293 

LX. The Atonement.294 

LXI. Ignored Doctrines and Examples of Jesus.295 

LXII. The Test of True Religion.301 

LXIII. Turning Evil into Good.302 

LXIV. Diversion of Evil.305 

LXV. Social Evils of Women.309 

LXVL The Mischief of our Gloomy Sunday . . . . . .310 

LX.VII. The Christian Sabbath at the Judgment . . . . .316 

LXVTH. The Universe. 318 

LXIX. Matter and Spirit.323 

LXX. Have Trees Intelligence ..326 

LXXI. Spiritualism. 

LXXU. Good and Evil compounded . . . • • • .329 




























10 


CONTENTS. 


Page. 

LXXIII. Superstition. 332 

LXXIV. A Sure Remedy for Irreligion.334 

LXXV. The Danger of believing too much.337 

LXXVI. Are the Miracles recorded superior to Natural Means ? . . 339 

LXXVTI. Present Inducements to Virtue.343 

LXXVIIL Obstacles to Christianity in China.348 

LXXIX. Moral Sewage.352 

LXXX. Religion for Children 354 

LXXXI. To reclaim the Erring ...•••••• 356 

LXXXH. Conclusion 358 


















PART FIRST. 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 




THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


PHYSICAL EVIL DEFINED. 

We say the Creator is all good, and therefore his 
works are only good. 

But the world is his work, and we complain that it is 
full of evil. How this is, and why, is what it is our 
task to explain. 

In general terms, we speak of the beauties of crea¬ 
tion and the perfection of its laws; but, when we 
analyze, we find that evil forms a large part of the com¬ 
ponent atoms of all things. The world has light; but 
it has also darkness. The elements are disorderly and 
destructive. The weather is ever in extremes. It is 
too hot, too cold, too windy, too dry, or too wet. We 
ask for rain to help us, and, instead, a flood comes, and 
brings us ruin. 

• We snatch our food from a host of enemies, — from 
blight, frost, storm, weeds, vermin, and putrefaction. 

The mass of life is sustained by the active agency of 
death. It is by violence and murder that all fish live; 
and so do birds, insects, and animals, and even man him¬ 
self. Man enters the world crying, every day frets 
him, and his parting is in agony. 

These are examples of physical evils. 


13 



14 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


ELEMENTARY EVIL. 

“ Father, 

Enrich me with a knowledge of thy works ; 

Through the disclosing deep,light my blind way.” 

Taking the universe as we find it, we see it is com¬ 
posed of innumerable central suns around which planets 
course. We discover that there are contending forces: 
one turns each planet and the sun itself on its axis; 
another vast power drives the planets in orbits around 
the sun ; another force keeps them from straying beyond 
their orbits; and yet another holds them off so that 
they keep their distance from the sun. There is, be¬ 
sides, an internal force of cohesion that holds firmly 
together the atoms composing the celestial bodies. 
There are other forces innumerable. Each and every 
one has certain antagonism to all the others. Thus we 
see that all Nature is a system of violence, one thing 
driving another; and it is by the equipoise of checks 
and balances that order is maintained and perpetually 
insured. There is no life without contention, no day 
without night. If we want sunlight to-morrow, we 
must pass through darkness to-night to get to it. From 
this we derive the first hint, that we must go through 
evil to enjoy good; that evil is a contending force neces¬ 
sary to give to goodness life and motion, if not genera¬ 
tion. 

We cannot imagine any plan better than the planetary 
system for the purposes designed. We deem impossible 
any arrangement under that system that would give 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


15 


light without darkness; and investigation may show, 
that, in the revolutions of the moral world, causes entire¬ 
ly analogous make it equally impossible to give good 
without evil. 


STORMS AND FLOODS. 

“ Bleak and dismal on the leaf-stripped woods 
The fitful rains rush down in sudden floods.” 

The alternating periods of day and night, the snow at 
the poles of the earth and on its great mountain-chains, 
and the fervid heat at the broad central belt of the 
tropics, are arrangements expressly designed to keep up 
continual disturbance in the air and the great waters. 
Heat and cold give and take alternately. 

The ocean teems with life. The air is an ocean of 
gas, at the bottom of which man and his co-tenants of 
the land have their range. Exhalations from plants and 
animals, from matter in decay, from decomposing rocks, 
and from all the pores of the earth, would smother life, 
were it not for this provision of disturbance to keep the 
air in constant agitation. Life in the ocean dwells near 
its surface ; and its saline waters go soon to corruption if 
taken out in a pail, and kept at rest. The untiring wave 
is a beautiful contrivance for its healthy agitation. Elec¬ 
tricity is a subtle element of life that needs also to be 
disturbed. It has its currents. Could not these changes 
and agitations have been produced in a quiet way to 
save us from the evil of storms and inundations ? 


16 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


Over the largest area of the earth, all the sunshine is 
necessary to ripen vegetation, after deducting the days 
of cloud and rainfall. It would not answer, therefore, 
to have the rain-supply returned to the clouds, obstruct¬ 
ing the sunshine as it does when it falls. The supply is 
therefore sent up by invisible evaporation, which is 
necessarily a much slower process, so as not to bar the 
sunshine. Electricity accompanies the water. 

To provide for the great exhaustion of water in sum¬ 
mer-time, and to do it without withdrawing sunshine, 
so necessary in early spring-time, the month of March 
gives us large supplies of water in the shortest time. 
This comes from the change of temperature that length 
of hours of sunshine brings. The storms and floods of 
that period are a necessary consequence. They purify 
the air, and they are evidently a necessary preparation 
for the great draughts about to be so suddenly made on the 
life-giving elements thus supplied. Experienced meteo¬ 
rologists know, that, in proportion as the fury of this 
periodic storm is lessened, the harvest of summer is 
shortened ; thus exemplifying its beneficent purpose. 
In California, the demands of summer-growth have to be 
supplied with the entire stock of water in the winter 
months; for in the six months of summer no rain falls. 
There the summer crops are safely predicted by the rain- 
gauge. The more disagreeable the winter, and the 
more destructive the flooded streams, the more abundant 
surely will be the harvest. Here is a beautiful illustra¬ 
tion of the compensation which Providence gives for 
the evils that are necessarily incident to the construction 
of this world, and to the laws of life growing out of that 
construction. 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


17 


That thunder and lightning, with their incident evils, 
are necessary attendants when rain falls in summer, 
seems to be indicated by the fact that in California, 
where no rain falls in summer, thunder and lightning are 
unknown. The long rheumatic season of condensed 
rains completely supplies, at the same time, pure electri¬ 
city, needing no detergent lightning then, nor thereafter. 

It can be demonstrated, that, without the terrible tor¬ 
nadoes and other destructive phenomena peculiar to the 
torrid zone, the country would be uninhabitable, from 
the poisonous exhalations that need their purification. 

“ Nor God alone in the still calm we find : 

He mounts the storm, and rides upon the wind.” 

The people of San Francisco (and the coast countries 
of all continents) complain of the strong and persistent 
ocean-gales of summer, with their blinding dust. They 
ask if, in reason, these might not be of some modera¬ 
tion. But to grant their prayer would be to suffocate 
the continent behind them ; for no less initial force 
would suffice to carry the- relieving air-current to its 
salvation. Without such troublous winds, such coast- 
ranges would be themselves pestiferous. 

We chronicle the devastations of floods and other 
casualties ; but these have narrow bounds. Would we 
present in equal detail the widespread blessings that 
flow from them over the great expanse, giving health 
and wealth to millions, what a balance would appear 
in favor of good over evil! 


18 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


BARREN MOUNTAINS. 

“ How dull were earth, if all one level plain, 

Horizon-bound, on north, south, east, and west 1 
Even though robed in the lush, gorgeous vest 
Of tropic lands, her beauty would be vain ; 

And we should sigh for barrenness again. 

Variety invigorates, and gives zest 

To all things, even to those which we love best: 

Sunshine needs shadow, pleasure haply pain.” 

Barren land is counted among tlie evils. The geog¬ 
raphy of the earth reveals what appears to be an excess 
of unprofitable land, that might better have been fertile. 
Vast mountain-ranges covered with eternal snow, the 
Himalayas, the Urals, the Alps, the Nevadas, the 
Rocky Mountains, the Cordilleras, and the like, besides 
being useless for culture, are impassable barriers between 
nations. Yet there is no more admirable arrangement 
of Providence. Were the earth more level and rich in 
soil, it would drown in winter, and be desert in summer. 
As the expanse of ocean is necessary to supply the 
clouds, the mountains are the great water-reservoirs in 
our land. When the season of greatest rains would 
else inundate the plains, destroying life and fertility, their 
great elevation, that makes them uninhabitable, gives 
them refrigeration, by which they hold in snowy deposit 
the surplus rainfall, to be disbursed, in summer-drought, 
among the streams that refresh the thirsty vales, and to 
keep full the subterranean reservoirs that give us flowing 
springs and artesian fountains. The great deserts of 
Africa teach us to value the blessing of high mountains ; 
the want of which makes the plains more barren than 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


19 


the mountains themselves. The elevation of mountains 
serves another indispensable purpose. They are great 
mineral depositories. Were they flattened down, the 
various stratifications of minerals and fossils would so 
far underlie each other as to be out of reach of dis¬ 
coverers forever. By the upheaval of the mountains, 
these minerals are turned upon edge to our view. The 
granite, which was undermost, becomes the topmost 
crest, where its superior hardness makes it most valuable 
as a resistant to decomposition from the elements that 
else would too soon trample down the mountain-heights. 

It is the alternations of temperature between the 
mountains and the plains, that regulate the rains, the 
air-currents, and the electric equilibrium. With all 
the excess of bounty given to the plains, Providence so 
compensates the mountaineer, that he has no envy of 
his brother’s richer inheritance. The purer air of the 
uplands gives him ruddier health and more elastic 
spirits. Who of the plains can match the Swiss in at¬ 
tachment to home, in high devotion to freedom and 
independence ? They may have thinner soils ; but their 
superior invigoration, and endurance of toil, compen¬ 
sate for this. If they toil more for subsistence, the 
keener relish of their mountain-air gives from a scantier 
board a richer enjoyment. 


COMPENSATION. 

In the State of California, there is for six months of 
summer no rain. Excepting a very few rivers, all the 
streams run dry, and gushing streams depart. Green 


20 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


fields, verdant hills, and grassy lawns forsake the land¬ 
scape. No smiling cottages adorn the banks of streams 
that are dry in summer, and in winter flooded far and 
wide. The great Nevadas, broad and high, have vast 
reservoirs of water, and snows eternal against their sum¬ 
mer exhaustion. Why, then, cannot we have, as other 
lands, rippling streams, babbling brooks, and gushing 
springs ? Why thirsts the ground when water might 
flow over it ? So speak the peoples. They know not 
what they ask. Never was arrangement devised in 
greater kindness than this withdrawing of the waters 
from the surface, where solar evaporation would soon 
exhaust them. Streams there are, and lakes and springs ; 
but, to preserve them for the use of the land, Providence 
gives them courses below the surface, sheltered from 
evaporating waste. The soil is arranged with a pecu¬ 
liar capillary porosity that conducts the water upward 
to the roots of trees and shrubs and many grasses ; so 
that, without a drop of water from above, from April to 
November the tree keeps green its leaves, and bears 
unusual fruit-crops to healthy maturity. But the water 
is everywhere alkaline and ill-flavored. It is so ; and it 
is to this alkaline saturation that California owes the 
inexhaustible fertility that bears successive crops of 
wheat for fifteen years, from the same fields, without 
diminution of the harvest! 

This law of compensation is beautifully illustrated in 
the way cattle are provided with pasture in the long 
drought of California summers. Herbage ceases to 
grow in the first days of June: the roots die, and the 
top parches. The leading pasture is wild oats. Now, 
every seed, by peculiarity of the climate, is tightly held 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


21 


in its capsule till the rains of November loosen the fibre, 
and the seed falls. The unclouded sun so quickly acts 
on the outer coat of the stem, that the inner portion is 
cured, with all its nutriment preserved from atmos¬ 
pheric desiccation; and the crop stands as hay well 
cured where it grew. Cattle keep fat on it till the 
rains make grass again. The wild oats of California 
present us with a curious exemplification of the changes 
which are provided in plants to meet the exigencies of 
new conditions. Cultivated oats were first introduced 
by the missionaries from Mexico. As it became wild, 
Nature seemed to desire that it should have the widest 
distribution. Accordingly we find the wild oat sup¬ 
plied with jointed legs, in every respect like those of a 
grasshopper. When dry, these are folded; but the 
first rain brings them out. When the returning sun 
begins to dry the limbs, the contraction of the joints 
sets them to hopping about in all directions; and they 
go often two yards from their starting-point, and much 
farther if wind is astir. They will do the same on a 
table if you first dip the grain into water a moment. 
As it dries, it begins to jump around. By this means, 
the wild oats, so valuable as feed in the long drought, 
now covers an area much greater than it could have 
extended without the addition of the power of locomo¬ 
tion. A merciful provision is made in the wild and 
treeless sage-plains of Nevada for winter-support of 
cattle. Among the sage-brush is a species of white, 
broad-leaved artemisia, locally called white sage, or 
winter-fat. In summer, while bunch-grass and other 
feed is to be had, this winter-fat has a pungent bitter¬ 
ness that makes it inedible. It is thus preserved from- 


22 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


consumption till the first frost comes to destroy other 
herbage. Frost gives to the winter-fat new qualities. 
Immediately the bitter changes to sweet: snow is rare ; 
and, all winter long, the cattle find in it the most nu¬ 
tritious pasture. Without this provision, they would 
perish. 

In these illustrations, we have striking proofs of that 
great law of compensation to which the universe owes 
its stability and its eternity. 


CONSUMPTION OF MATTER. * 

“Appetite compels 
Daily with fresh materials to repair 
The unavoidable expense of life, 

The necessary waste of flesh and blood.” 

We have shown that all motion (and therefore all 
life) is produced by collision ; one body driving another. 
All motion requires for its production the expenditure 
of something to create the force that moves. When 
you throw a ball, some of the muscle of your arm is 
consumed, and converted into the power applied. This 
waste material must be replaced by fresh matter, or the 
body would soon cease its functions. For this reason, 
all life must be fed by the destruction of other life hav¬ 
ing corresponding elements. This is the source of 
more evil and more suffering than all other causes com¬ 
bined ; but it is also the parent of civilization, of 
industry and.commerce, of all art and science, of every 
thing that gives man superiority and dominion over the 
earth, and makes the seas his highway. It is the great 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


23 


propelling power that makes up our busy life; and by 
what other means less compulsive can we imagine that 
the purpose could be effected ? The evils it entails are 
clearly an unavoidable necessity. But could not man 
have been exempt from this law ? Not if he is to live 
on this planet, certainly; for it is the universal law of 
life in all organizations on this globe. Every part of 
his structure is alike with other animals; and what is a 
necessity for their bodies must be an equal necessity for 
his. As they are born, so we ; and the same affection 
results between parent and offspring: as they live, pur¬ 
suing the means of life, we also are kept in activity, 
seeking our daily bread: and as they die, so our bodies 
wear out, and give place to new forms, under the atomic 
law that demands constant change of rotation in the 
primary elements of creation. Their life everlasting 
depends upon their moving on forever in never-ceasing 
changes. As no two facts are alike, so it is probable 
that nothing once formed can thereafter be reproduced 
without some variations, as a law inherent in matter. 
When existing forms of life have rung all possible 
changes, so that no further creation can go on without 
reproducing features already once created, may it not 
be that geologic revolutions come to the relief of health¬ 
ful life by a new creation of new varieties of animals ? 
Geology reveals such changes oft repeated; and, as we 
know that inferior races of men walked the earth ages 
before Adam, our account of creation may refer to the 
dawn of our improved Caucasian race. For aught we 
know, the misty instinct of Egypt may have built up on 
this truth the idea of a similar resurrection of the body, 
after our geologic age, in higher spiritual condition. 


24 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANIC DESTRUCTION. 

We are the offspring of the earth ; so is every thing 
that grows thereon, whether held by roots or by gravi¬ 
tation. As the child gets from its mother a nature 
which is necessarily alike in both, so the earth is bound 
up in laws analogous to those it imposes upon its children. 
It wears, and requires renewal and never-ceasing motion 
among its particles, else it would not be alive with quick¬ 
ening power. Ask it to expend its force in giving 
growth to the grain we sow, and it will demand refresh¬ 
ment to repair the waste, like as we do. 

Under the same law, the mountains of the globe are 
ever being broken down, ground up, and washed over 
the plains. What the ocean is to the clouds the moun¬ 
tains are to the plains. Aided by frost, they charge the 
rivulets with new soil, and send the streams to spread it 
as manure over the land below. In time, it is obvious 
that ever taking away, and never returning, must level 
down the high places of earth at last. But mountains 
we must have, as elsewhere explained; and there must 
be somewhere a reserved power competent to the up¬ 
heaval of the solid earth necessary to their formation. 

The earthquake tells us that such reservoirs of power 
are kept ever living, and the volcano informs us that 
these reservoirs require chimneys to give room and vent 
to the surplus produce by the continual conversion of 
solids into more space-requiring fluxes and gases. The 
process consists in melting up the barren rocks below, 
and throwing them to the surface, changed into rich 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


25 


soil. There are more than two hundred known volca¬ 
noes unceasingly engaged at this useful work. The 
slopes of Vesuvius attest the value of volcanic soil. 
California is largely covered with it; and, everywhere 
in the mining districts, vast “ table-mountains ” stand, 
separated by valleys cut out from one level sheet of 
molten lava, that once covered the whole State; the 
table-lands yet retaining their covering, out of which 
decomposition has formed a surface of the richest soil. 

It is in proof that every part of the earth has in turn, 
however remote, its share in this renovation. No part 
of the crust of the earth stands firm. It is matter of 
instrumental observation that every coast on the globe, 
that has been examined, is either slowly rising or sink 
ing. In time, the whole planet is probably literally 
turned inside out. This immense power necessary to 
keep alive the quickening life of our planet is, for the 
most part, so exercised as to be least harmful to life on 
the surface. Volcanic chimneys are elevated on high 
to carry away in safety the noxious gases engendered. 
It is comparatively seldom, and then doubtless a neces¬ 
sity, that the dread earthquake upheaves a sudden moun¬ 
tain, or ingulfs a city or a plain in the yawning void. 

Philosophers who study these phenomena recognize 
their usefulness, and confess that no power less terrible 
would be adequate to the task. In no department of 
Nature is there more striking conviction of the vast 
preponderance of good over evil. 


2G 


THE GOSPEL OE GOOD AND EVIL. 


DARKNESS. 

“ Darkness, how profound ! All beauty void ; 

Distinction lost, and gay variety 
One universal blot.” 

Light is an inestimable blessing; and the absence of 
it, darkness, is set down as one of the evils. 

From the rotation of the earth on its axis, and from 
its orbit round a central sun, which gives it light in the 
most economical manner, one side of this planet must 
necessarily be immersed in its own shadow : and dark¬ 
ness is unavoidable; for it is a necessary law of inter¬ 
cepted light. Were it not for this law, — that opaque 
bodies intercept light, — neither our houses nor our 
clothes would conceal our bodies ; nor would.they afford 
us shelter from the fierce light and heat of the summer 
sun. The beauty of the earth, too, would be lost by 
depriving the landscape of the soft influence of mingled 
light and shade. 

It may appear, at first thought, that unbroken sun¬ 
shine would be desirable. Hear the experience of a trav¬ 
eler who has tried it. Buchanan, in his “ Expedition 
to the North Pole,” says that “ the novelty of perpetual 
day made it at first very attractive ; but very soon it 
became extremely irksome from its monotony. No man, 
without having experienced the want of a regulator to 
mark the periods of labor and repose, and to give to 
Nature that variety our senses crave, can know how 
truly thankful we should be for the wise and merciful 
provision of alternating periods of light and darkness.” 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


27 


Even in countries where night regularly alternates 
with the day, but where clouds and rain are little known, 
as in parts of Egypt and Chili, the monotony of unceas¬ 
ing sunshine through the long day of summer makes 
the traveller sigh for 

“ The uncertain glory of our April day, 

Which now shows all the beauty of the sun, 

And by and by a cloud takes all away.” 

Nothing more strikingly illustrates the advantages of 
tempering good with what we call evil, than the min¬ 
gling of light and darkness to produce that variety 
which gives zest to visual enjoyment. 


PARASITIC VERMIN. 

Among the evils of life, the swarms of insects and 
vermin of all kinds that torment us in summer, and 
devour our substance, hold a prominent rank. It is, of 
course, a law of the universe, to which, in common with 
all animals, we owe the existence of our bodies, that 
where food is there shall be an eater to consume it. So 
soon as life springs up, a host of antagonistic forces 
accompanies, sufficient to insure its final destruction. 

Insects are indispensable agents of this kind. With¬ 
out their aid in devouring refuse animal and vegetable 
matter, its decomposition would seriously taint the 
atmosphere. Where this waste most abounds, as in 
tropical climates, low marshy lands, &c., insects are 
most numerous; and on high airy ground, where their 


28 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


agency is least wanted for this purpose, we are relieved 
from the annoyance. 

It may be urged that their ravages would not be 
objected to if confined to waste material in the season 
of decay. But it must be considered that time and ten¬ 
der food are required to perfect their birth and growth, 
ere they can be fitted for the task of devouring the 
tougher fibres of full-grown plants. Insects, more¬ 
over, form the food of nearly all the birds of the air ; 
and the abundance that remains for man after they have 
gleaned their harvest should hush the murmurs of 
complaint. 

State agricultural reports of France give to the world 
a practical illustration of the uses of evil; and a warn¬ 
ing, that in the attempt to make of earth a paradise, 
by removing any great natural evil, we do but add to 
our privations and the burdens of toil by the necessary 
engenderment of a greater scourge. 

Committees and officials charged to investigate the 
causes of the marked deficit in the grain production, 
and the diseases of the mulberry and the vine, made re¬ 
port to the legislature charging these terrible evils to the 
destruction of small birds (consequent, we presume, up¬ 
on cheapened fire-arms). It shows, that, as this fashion 
goes on increasing, so these vegetable ravages multiply. 
Petitions flowed in to the emperor from all the depart¬ 
ments, awakening conviction of this truth, and begging 
relief. Among them are some suggesting the importa¬ 
tion and distribution of the very kinds of birds they 
have been destroying, to save them from threatened 
famine. It becomes thus apparent that thieving birds 
are actually man’s onlv protection against insects, 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


29 


which he is powerless to resist; and the few grains they 
take from his crop are but a cheap return to the laborer 
which is worthy of his hire. 

Could we but see a little farther, it would be 
revealed, doubtless, with equal clearness, that all evils, 
kept down to such safe proportions, are equally the har¬ 
bingers of good. 


THE RIGORS OF WINTER. 

“In pensive Winter, 

Man sits at the social board, and, happy, hears 
The excluded tempest idly rave along.” 

The inclination of the earth’s axis to the plane of 
the ecliptic causes diversity of climates, and the ex¬ 
tremes of heat and cold of which we complain. It is, 
however, by this provision, that the largest portion of 
the earth is made habitable ; for, otherwise, we of the 
temperate zone should have had spring, without sum¬ 
mer ; and farther north, as well as in corresponding lati¬ 
tudes south of the equator, the country would have 
been made desolate by perpetual winter. Jupiter alone 
of the great planets of our solar system seems to be 
subject to this inconvenience. By the existing arrange¬ 
ments, the greatest variety of production is insured 
from the smallest number of elements, — a law which 
our ideas of perfection would suppose essential, and 
which pervades all Nature. Every latitude has, in 
this way, advantages peculiar to itself in the growth of 
some product which is not adapted to other climates. 


30 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


This brings man out from the caves of selfishness, to 
make exchanges. Commerce and interchange of thought 
promote science and art, and elevate the condition of 
the mass by increasing their comforts. Improvement 
is carried to barbarous nations, that else would remain 
unknown; and emigration and intermarriage, save the 
race of man from that degeneracy which long-con¬ 
tinued alliances of the same blood are sure to beget. 

The rigors of winter, resulting from this condition in 
temperate latitudes, destroy vegetation, and compel us, 
with much labor, to lay up stores of food, fuel, and rai¬ 
ment. The channels of trade close, the plough grows 
fast in the furrow, the poor are distressed, and robberies 
multiply. Here is a host of evils. 

This increased activity gives to man in these latitudes 
a body more robust, and intellect more refined, than are 
found in tropical climates, where he has not that variety 
of pursuit and enjoyment that gives a zest to life. He 
is in every way a happier and nobler being than he of 
the hotter latitudes, who dozes away half his life in le¬ 
thargic idleness. It is in temperate latitudes that this 
forced preparation for winter calls out the genius of 
man, and that all the bright intellectual lights of the 
earth have appeared. Persons who move to tropical 
climates always look back with regret upon the varied 
charms, the lights and shades, of the lands of frost and 
snow. This seeming evil is, therefore, a real blessing. 
It is no curse that we earn our bread by the sweat of 
our brow. Labor is a benevolent contrivance. It is 
the parent of health, of virtue, of* peace of mind, of 
happiness. Its opposite is the curse; the parent of 
disease, of vice, of restless discontent, of ennui , and 
hypochondria. 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


31 


The use of winter is thus beautifully set forth by 
Willis: — 


“ Winter has come again : the sweet south-west 
Is a forgotten wind ; and the strong earth 
Has laid aside its mantle to be bound 
By the frost fetter. There is not a sound 
Save the skater’s heel; and there is laid 
An icy finger on the lip of streams ; 

And the clear icicle hangs cold and still; 

And the snow-fall is noiseless as thought. 

Spring has a rushing sound, and Summer sends 
Many sweet voices with its odors out, 

And Autumn rustleth its decaying robe 
With a complaining whisper. Winter’s dumb! 
God made his ministry a silent one ; 

And he has given him a foot of steel, 

4nd an unlovely aspect, and a breath 
Sharp to the senses; and we know that he 
Tempereth well, and hath a meaning hid 
Under the shadow of his hand. Look up ! 

And shall it be interpreted 1 Your home 
Hath a temptation now. There is no voice 
Of waters with beguiling for your ear; 

And the cool forest and the meadows green 
Witch not your feet away; and in the dells 
There are no sunny places to lie down : 

You must go in, and by your cheerful fire 
Wait for the olfices of love, and hear 
Accents of human tenderness, and feast 
Your eye upon the beauty of the young. 

It is a season for the quiet thought, 

And the still reckoning with thyself. The year 
“ Gives back the spirits of its dead; ” and Time 
Whispers the history of its vanished hours; 
And the heart calleth his affections up, 

Counteth his wasted ingots. Life stands still. 
And settles like a fountain ; and the eye 
Sees clearly through its depths, and noteth all 
That stirred its troubled waters. It is well 
That winter with the dying year should come.” 


32 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


HUNGER. 

“ No call is loud 

As that of hunger in the ears of man : 

Importunate, unreasonable, it constrains 

His notice more than all the woes beside.” 

Life is motion, stillness is death. Some contrivance, 
some mainspring, is necessary to stimulate man to activ¬ 
ity. Eating is a most ingenious and effective mode of 
spurring him into perpetual action. It is besides indis¬ 
pensably necessary to repair the waste of the system 
involved in every movement. Remove this incentive 
to labor, and who would be found willing to work ? 
What would become of the arts, science, literature, and 
human progress? They would stop short, and man 
would sink below the brute ! 

Eating being a necessity, some monitor is wanted to 
give notice when food is required; because the organs 
that elaborate it are wisely placed beyond our control. 
Hunger is given for this purpose. Whatever pain he 
gives at times is due to his fidelity as a sentinel. We 
owe to this monitor’s pertinacity our health, our enjoy¬ 
ment, and our very life. 


DISEASE AND PAIN. 

“ As man, be sure, the moment of his breath 
Receives the lurking principle of death: 

The young disease, that must subdue at length, 

Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength.” 

As rivers in their course continually take from the 
soil they touch, depositing sedimentary matter at cer- 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


83 


tain points, filling up cavities, turning the current, and 
overflowing occasionally the banks, damaging yet enrich¬ 
ing, and finally choking up the outlet by an impassable 
barrier, forcing the stream to abandon its channel, and 
to seek a new outlet; so it is with the vital stream, 
the current blood, and the nervous fluid, in their con¬ 
stant course through the thousand arterial, venous, and 
nervous rivers of the body. Sedimentary deposits 
accumulate under a law evidently exactly analogous, 
in fact, identical; and the obstructions, overflowing 
humors, diversion from the old channels, the constitu¬ 
tional changes of age, and finally death, are precisely 
the same, and are intended for the same purposes; viz., 
the law of change insuring the final destruction of all 
material forms. Thus, as age advances, the channels 
of passion, one after another, are choked up, and new 
ones are opened. From the currents of confidence, 
hope, young love, and romance, the vital stream turns 
into the channels of fear, distrust, ambition, avarice, and 
superstition. The animal body, nourished by streams 
bearing solids in suspension, cannot be exempt from the 
sedimentary law of all liquids in motion. 

The higher our civilization, the more our diseases 
multiply. In savage life, the full and healthy exer¬ 
cise of the chase gives man comparative freedom from 
disease. The confined employments of civilized com¬ 
munities must be expected to interfere with the healthy 
action of our delicate organs. If they were less sensi¬ 
tive, they might be better able to resist; but they would 
be unfit for the extremely delicate functions they have 
to perform. 

Thus, for instance, the eye must be delicately' con- 
3 


34 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


structecl to fit it for the examination of minute objects. 
Subdivision of labor, which is indispensable to perfec¬ 
tion in arts and science, requires that one class of per¬ 
sons shall be engaged in microscopic investigations. 
The fine texture which is essential to this purpose ren¬ 
ders the organ highly sensitive ; and continued imposi¬ 
tion of the whole powers of vision upon this finer part 
of the machinery of the eye inflames and weakens it. 
To be consistent all around, it could not be otherwise. 

Again: the incessant use of one set of muscles in 
performing one kind of mechanical labor, day after day, 
during a whole lifetime, must make the accumulation 
of waste matter unnaturally large in particular direc¬ 
tions. Excesses, as gluttony, inebriety, abuse of the 
passions, affect us in the same way. Hence the organs 
charged with its absorption and expulsion will be over¬ 
tasked, and, unless-relieved, the machinery must stop. 

This would be death. Disease comes in to assist us 
in this crisis. The patient is obliged to give the parts 
relief by resting from labor ; and, by physic taken to 
save him from death, he gets rid of the obstructing 
humors, and lives. Disease, therefore, is a monitor, 
warning us against abuses which else would be without 
correction. 

This is the philosophy of disease in general; and what 
hunger is to the stomach, pain is to disease. Dyspepsia 
and gout are but friendly beacons on the shoals of lux¬ 
ury, warning us off. If pain did not drive us to the 
physician, the unfelt disease would end by hurling us 
suddenly and unwarned to our long account. But 
hereditary diseases, it will be urged, cannot be justified 
by this reasoning. This is true : we must seek their 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


35 


solution in some other law. Hereditary diseases, which 
transmit the peculiarities of the parent to the child, are 
a necessary consequence of the laws of reproduction. 
“ Like begets like.” If this conservative law did not 
exist to the extent we deplore in this instance, our 
species would soon run into other forms. 

Epidemic diseases, which sweep life from the earth 
with unsparing hand, are the result of a different law, 
which will be elucidated presently. It is an interesting 
illustration of the philosophy of evil, that most of the 
powerful remedial agents of our physicians are in them¬ 
selves poisonous; yet, by proper administration, they 
become saviors, and ministers of life and health. 


DEATH. 

“ How swiftly pass our years! 

How soon their night comes on ! 

A train of hopes and fea-s, 

And human life is gone/’ 

We have incontestable proofs in geology that death 
has been an established law for ages before the appear¬ 
ance of man on this planet. The stratified rocks, for 
miles in depth, are full of the petrified bodies of organ¬ 
ized flesh. Many rocks, a thousand feet in thickness, 
abound in shell-fish that must have lived and tranquilly 
died on the spot during centuries of slow accumulation. 
The great Pyramids of Gizeh contain some twelve mil¬ 
lions of tons of nummulitic stone, quarried before the 
date assigned to the flood of Noah. This limestone is 


36 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


literally a compact rqass of shells and corselets of minute 
marine fish, so perfectly preserved as to prove that they 
died quietly and in the usual way. The depth and vast 
extent of the limestone-deposit whence the material 
was quarried, render it self-evident that it must have 
taken many thousands of years to accumulate at the 
bottom of an ancient sea; and the same evidence com¬ 
pels us to assign to its formation a date far, very far, 
before the period of the earliest history of our race. 

That physical death was introduced into the world 
as a penal infliction cannot be reconciled with the host 
of evidence that proves its origin in the universal law 
of life. 

All fish, a very large proportion of animals, birds, and 
insects, give proof in their structure that they were 
created expressly to devour each other. In the very 
first day, — nay, in the very first hour, — death must 
have proclaimed its law by the shrieks of ten thousand 
creatures. So far as man’s body is concerned, he is an 
animal like the rest; and the provision for renewing 
and continuing his species, of engendering a substitute, 
being the same, as his organs attest, the law of ultimate 
dissolution must have been the same. This conclusion 
cannot be avoided. Indeed, from the constitution of 
man’s body, it could not have been proof against casu¬ 
alties. A fall, or the impact of weight, must have 
crushed it; water must have drowned it; fire consumed 
it; the knife pierced it; famine starved it; thirst per¬ 
ished it; poison corroded it; foul air and the halter 
asphyxed it. This establishes the existence of the law 
in long ages before the era of man, and that, if all ani¬ 
mals must die, he cannot be exempt from the general 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


37 


law, which is the law of all flesh ; but it does not, per¬ 
haps, reconcile us to the assertion that the imposition of 
this great physical evil was at all necessary in the first 
place. It has been shown that life is a phenomenon 
resulting from the antagonistic action of matter against 
matter. There is not a movement we make, not a 
thought we conceive, that does not necessarily depend 
for its production upon the death or decomposition of 
some part of the material organization of the body ; 
else eating would not be required to renew the spent 
material: so that, if death be not active in his work every 
moment, there can be no life. The unphilosophic mind 
views life and death as it does good and evil, — as attri¬ 
butes the most opposite in their natures : yet they are 
twin-brothers, and co-workers at one business ; nay, 
they are two persons, so to say, in one. 

If this be true, the same circumstances that are favor¬ 
able to life should be equally so to death. We find this 
is the case. Oxygen, that is the grand supporter of 
life, is the great agent that destroys it. In taking 
apart the elements of a body by the process we call 
death, the only possible means are adopted to furnish 
materials for the creation of a new one; just as the 
stone-mason demolishes the old walls, and uses them in 
the construction of a new one ; or, to come still nearer 
home, just as a man destroys a sheep to make new flesh 
for himself. He is equally the agent of life and death 
in the transaction. 

Moreover, the moist, sultry heat of summer, which 
gives most vigorous growth to vegetation that supports 
animal life, and the vivifying thunder-showers also, 
are most favorable to the rapid decomposition of dead 


38 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


and dying matter. That condition of the atmosphere, 
also, that produces sweeping epidemics, scattering death 
around us, gives equal stimulus to the process of gene¬ 
ration ; for it is well known to all medical men that a 
prodigious increase of births is sure to follow'. If it 
were not a law of matter that its elements should be 
separable from existing combinations, how could crea¬ 
tion proceed? how could man build his house, weave 
his cloth, or get sustenance from food ? Even the air 
could not be inhaled, and made to give vitality to his 
blood. 

Constant collision among the complicated machi¬ 
nery of the body must end, as with the knife and the 
grinding-stone, in wearing it out at last. If it were 
otherwise, if one set of forms remained alway, space 
would soon be filled up, leaving neither room nor ma¬ 
terial elements for new ones. At this moment, there are, 
say, a thousand millions of people on this earth, and 
loud cries are made of over-population. In a single 
century, four times that number of souls are born, 
act their allotted parts, and sink into their long repose. 
How many thousands of years since would the earth 
have been packed with people, had there been no death ! 
And what a spectacle should we have had now! — th$ 
same trees and the same carpet of grass arrested in 
mid growth, and the aged men-and women. No: here 
is a difficulty at the very outset. The laws of repro¬ 
duction (with a multitude of analogous laws) must have 
been suddenly annihilated, and all the organs and pas¬ 
sions created for their use must have been removed. 
The distinction of sexes, the only bond of union that 
holds society together, having been removed, society 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


39 


must have been dissolved, and we should be men and 
women no longer. It will be perceived at once that a 
thousand difficulties of this sort will spring up in carry¬ 
ing out a supposition of the kind ; each one of which 
would reduce to an impossibility the theory that man’s 
body could have been saved from dissolution under the 
necessary laws of creation. 


MODES OF DEATH. 

There is an order 
Of mortals on earth who do become 
Old in their youth, and die ere middle age, 

Without violence of warlike death : 

Some perishing of pleasure, some of study, 

Some worn with toil, some of mere weariness, 

Some of disease, and some of insanity, 

And some of withered or of broken hearts ; 

For this last is a malady that slays 
More than are numbered in the lists of fate, 

Taking all shapes, and bearing many names. 

Manfred. 

It being established that death is a necessary evil, 
an indispensable law, it is accordant with all other 
laws of creation, that every variety of means should be 
devised to insure its execution. In truth, the varied 
casualties to which life is necessarily exposed make this 
a matter of course. 

For this cause it is that epidemics, wars, famine, and 
the like, sweep over the earth, pruning out exuberant 
life. All are but varied modes of effecting that which, 
at some time and in some way, must befall every man 


40 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


at last. If the choice were left to every man how he 
should die, so great is the diversity of tastes, as exhibit¬ 
ed for instance among suicides, that it is highly probable 
very little variation would take place from existing 
modes. This variety in time and circumstance keeps 
us in happy ignorance. Dread of death and whatever 
pain attends it are necessary to protect life. Even 
with all its horrors, how often do the weary and broken¬ 
hearted pray for rest in 

“ That solemn, silent, simple spot, 

The mouldering realms of peace, 

Where human passions are forgot, 

And human follies cease ” ! 

We have no reason to suppose that any needless suf¬ 
fering attends the dying hour. The struggle is often 
relieved by insensibility; and the antecedent pains pre¬ 
pare us, tired of life, to meet as an angel of mercy the 
messenger who leads us to the peaceful shores of the 
silent land. 


“ 0 land, 0 land 
For all the broken hearted ! 

The wildest herald by our faith allotted 
Beckons, and with inverted torch doth stand. 

To lead us with a gentle hand 
To the land of the great departed, 

Into the silent land! ” 

The repulsiveness of death, too,— the rapid and 
loathsome decay of the body, — is a wise provision to 
drive away the living from the clay they reverence. 

Alas for man ! 

The herb in its humility may fall, 

And waste into the bright and genial air; 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


41 


While we, by hands that ministered in life 
Nothing but love to us, are thrust away, 

The earth flung upon our just cold bosoms, 

And the warm sunshine trodden out forever. 

Willis. 


MAN’S LONG INFANCY AND HIS WEAK PHYSI¬ 
CAL POWER. 

“Man’s cares are eased with intervals of bliss, 

His little children climbing for a kiss.” 

The long infancy of man, and his weak physical 
powers, compared with those of other animals, are the 
source of many evils; but reflection will show, that here 
also is a nice adaptation between our wants and the 
means given to supply them. Man has much to learn 
to fit him for the varied employments of civilized life. 
In proportion as the means of subsistence are obtained 
with less labor and skill, as in savage life and equatorial 
climates, his period of infancy is shortened, and he ripens 
earlier. 

What substitute can we suggest for the blessed influ¬ 
ence of children in drawing out the tenderest and most 
ennobling emotions of the soul; keeping up a healthy 
ripple on the surface that would else be frozen with sel¬ 
fishness ! Their little voices soften the heart of the 
most abandoned; and, like guardian angels, they turn 
our steps from the paths of vice. Wretched is the man 
who reaches the climax of age without these green vines 
twined around him, drawing sustenance, and returning 
protecting moral shade ! 


42 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


The telescopic vision of the eagle, and the microscopic 
eye of the insect, would have been equally unsuited to 
our daily wants. The lion’s strength could not have 
been ours, without sacrificing the ample play of the arm, 
and the wonderful mechanism of the hand, without 
which the constructive powers of the human mind 
would have availed us as little as if we had been brutes. 

The physical weakness of our race is an excellent 
arrangement to promote the social virtues. It compels 
man as often as possible to call in the aid of his fellow, 
thus multiplying the offices of reciprocal kindness. It is 
his weakness, too, that stimulates his ingenuity, and gives 
exercise to his reason to overcome the defect by me¬ 
chanical devices and the centration of labor. This is 
the foundation of his greatness ! 


ROTATION OF THE WHEEL OF LIFE. 

“ Constant rotation of the unwearied wheel 
That Nature rides upon maintains her health, 

Her beauty, and fertility : she dreads 
An instant’s pause, and lives but while she moves.” 

In all the works of God this antagonistic principle prevails; one 
thing against another. (See Eccles. xxxiii. 11, &c.) 

To insure action, which is the essence of life, all 
nature is made a system of violence. Warring elements 
crumble into powder the stubborn rock: the herb 
takes root, and robs it of its nourishment. Beasts of the 
field attack it, in turn, and fatten on its destruction. 
Presently beasts of prey pounce upon them, and make 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


43 


a meal. Death smites them next: their carcasses feed 
the vultures, and their bones make a meal for the 
hyena. When these are filled, a swarm of insects find 
in what is left a rich repast, ere they themselves are 
swallowed by the next consumer. Each one has had 
his share, and each has- contributed to the general 
enjoyment. In every case, the destruction of one has 
been necessary to the sustenance of another. Nothing 
has been lost in the process; for notwithstanding the 
vast crowds of animals cropping the open prairies, and 
being surrounded by others devouring them and each 
other, the return of every spring shows no diminution 
in the numbers of the animals, nor stint in the luscious 
food that is spread for their repast. 

Of all animals, man is the most destructive. He pur¬ 
sues the great Leviathan within the polar circle to light 
his house. He ransacks the sea and land in every lati¬ 
tude ; he slays and plunders with unsparing hand. He 
enslaves the horse and the camel; he robs and slaughters 
the ox, the sheep, and the swine. The fowl and the 
insect do not escape his rapacity. He levies taxes in 
kind, and his storerooms are filled to overflowing. 
It is thus he gathers his food and his raiment, the bal¬ 
sam for his diseases, and the fuel that cheers and 
illuminates his hearth. Every year he increases in 
numbers, in spite of the ravages of disease and death; 
and every season opens to him as bountiful a supply as 
before, undiminished by his rapacity. Occasionally ii> 
civilized life, often in his savage estate, he falls a prey 
in turn to the beast of the field and the monster of 
the deep. If he escape these casualties, he is delivered 
up at .last to make food for the worms of earth. 44 All 


44 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


things were made for me,” says man while he eats his 
muttoii; “ All things were made for us,” say the worms 
as they eat the fallen man. 

Thus we see the chain of natural dependence that 
binds all created things, animate and inanimate, link by 
link, in one community of interest. One law encircles, 
directs, and confines the whole, each within its proper 
sphere. The evil that befalls the one, the other cannot 
escape. 

Motion, therefore contending forces, therefore wear¬ 
ing-out, therefore disease and death, — the necessary lot 
of all. 


THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

It is useless to multiply illustrations. The same prin¬ 
ciples prevail throughout the universe. Every thing is 
subservient to fixed, eternal, and unalterable laws, by 
which alone could be effected any determinate purpose 
that must have been the object of creation. 

Not a movement can take place except in obedience 
to some inflexible law. The uncertain shower of April, 
the ever-changing form of fleeting clouds, the misstep 
you make, all obey a law from which there is no escape. 
Nothing can happen that is not a necessary consequence 
of events that preceded it. Were it otherwise, no 
system, no plan of creation, would be carried out, and 
Omniscience would be inconceivable. 

In our ignorance of causes, we refer events to what 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


45 


we call chance . The true definition of this word is 44 an 
unseen cause; ” and the explanation saves the necessity 
of comment. 

“ All nature is but art unknown to thee; 

All chance, direction which thou canst not see ; 

All discord, harmony not understood ; 

All partial evil, universal good: 

And spite of pride, and erring reason’s spite, 

One truth is clear, — whatever is, is right.” 


PROOF THAT ALL EVIL IS A LAW OF CREATION. 

By what means do we certainly know any thing to be 
an established law of Nature ? By its continued recur¬ 
rence from day to day, from year to year, and from 
generation to generation, so that man himself can 
certainly predict periodical results dependent on the 
same. Now, all physical evils are reducible to tabular 
computation in this way. From year to year, in every 
city, a certain average number of houses are destroyed 
by fire; a certain amount of property is lost by house¬ 
breaking ; a certain percentage of ships at sea, and 
merchandise afloat, is lost; a certain average is main¬ 
tained in the deaths by different diseases and casualties. 
Tables are constructed upon this doctrine of 44 chances,” 
as it is called, by which insurance is effected against 
risks of every kind ; and the experience of ages has 
proved that the laws are absolute and invariable. The 
same tabular computation may be applied with equal 
certainty to all the physical evils of life. 


46 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


This establishes the fact beyond contradiction, that all 
existing physical evils are a. part of the grand scheme 
of creation. That they are a necessary part, the study 
of all we have treated makes manifest; and, by pursuing 
the same, system of inquiry, the useful purpose of every 
evil may be demonstrated. 

What can be more unprofitable than our daily com¬ 
plaints of these evils, and our prayers for their aversion, 
seeing that they are the unavoidable results of the wisest 
laws ? 

Nothing so effectually checks the disposition to com¬ 
plain as the study of those laws, which is the object of 
this treatise. 


EVIL IS A RELATIVE TERM. 

Take almost any of the evils we deprecate, and ex¬ 
amine it singly, and you will find thousands protesting 
against its removal. Not a public improvement, no 
grant of any kind, can be asked of a government, but 
there will be opposition to show that the same thing 
which is good to some is evil to others; proving that 
evil is not an entity, but that, like the chameleon, every 
thing is colored alternately as w T e vary the position from 
which we view it: and the very same thing thus becomes, 
in turn, good and evil. If we are cold, fire is good; if 
we are hot, it is evil. What is evil to one is good to 
another. The rain that ruins the harvester blesses the 
miller and the boatman. The scanty market the seller 
craves is bitterness to the buyer; and the rosy health we 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


47 


pray for beggars the doctor, the nurse, and the apothe¬ 
cary. Carrion and train-oil are offensive to us, but sweet 
savored to the vulture and the Esquimaux. Snakes 
and henbane are poison to us, but they delight and fatten 
swine. What can be more nauseating than tobacco! 
yet it gives priceless enjoyment to millions. Fire sears 
our flesh ; but, if it had not this consumptive power, it 
would not cook our food, nor burn the fuel that warms 
our hearths and ministers to our varied necessities. 
Even the watering of spirits, and other adulterations 
that put unjust gains into the pocket of the vender, give 
often to the buyer, by reducing a too concentrated diet, 
protection from diseases he blindly courts. 


NO GOOD WITHOUT EVIL. 

“ Mark what unvarying laws preserve each State, — 

Laws wise as Nature, and as fixed as fate.” 

Nothing; better illustrates the even distribution of 
good and evil, and the impossibility of concentrating all 
advantages in any one department, than a search for a 
country-residence. In whatever direction we look, we 
find that necessarily, where one set of desirable qualities 
exists, there will be a corresponding set of equivalent 
disadvantages. 

Hills give us fine prospects, healthy air, refreshing 
breezes, no insects, good roads, farinaceous grain, sweet 
grasses, &c.; but the soil is thin, water is scarce, early 
and late frosts destroy our fruits, our labor is doubled, 


43 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


and tillage is more costly. Emigrants to the Western 
American States are tempted by the rich alluvial plains, 
where, with little labor, rank crops are secured; but 
they must accept, as a necessary condition of the situa¬ 
tion which produces these benefits, damp atmosphere, 
pestilent diseases, bad roads, confined prospect, annoy¬ 
ing vermin, rank weeds, and insufferable heat. Big 
corn, big fevers, is American experience. 

This system of compensation runs through all Nature, 
and tends to equalize the enjoyment of men in every 
variety of climate and circumstance. Where one sense 
is defective, the rest become more acute. The blind, 
obliged to depend on feeling, acquire an exceeding deli¬ 
cacy of touch. 

If we expect to find what our fancy calls perfection, 
we shall be disappointed: it is this delusion that drives 
delicately-balanced minds to misanthropy and suicide. 

The air is not all oxygen, else its purity, instead of 
sustaining, would destroy life. Valleys cannot be with¬ 
out hills, meat without bones to support it, fruit without 
seed, appetite without hunger, hardness without greater 
resistance, sharpness without increased danger of wound¬ 
ing, the endearment of children without the cares of 
supporting them, delicate organs without greater liability 
to derangement. 


NO EVIL WITHOUT GOOD. 

Natural obstacles are a source of greatness. Narrow 
insulation sends Britain afar to conquer room for life. 
Thus she spreads civilization, sows artificial wants, ere- 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


49 


ates commerce, multiplies industry, and enlarges her 
dominion. 

At home, prolific numbers with stint of sunshine and 
of surface set her wits to delving beneath the surface 
for values to give in exchange for the bread denied above. 
The factory system is an offspring of similar necessity : 
see how it has brought the world into her commercial 
subjection! 

France, by comparison, finds obstacles at first dis¬ 
heartening. She would rival her neighbor in manufac- 
turing. Skill she has, and cheap labor; but coal for 
working-power is too scarce. This very want, this evil, 
will be the making of the empire. 

A commission reports to government how to remedy 
the defect in such a way as to conquer several other 
evils incidentally, and greatly to add to the wealth of 
the nation. The Rhone has every year overflows that 
carry destruction along its course. This comes from the 
incapacity of its channel to give safe conduction to the 
volume of waters which the great water-shed of the 
snowy Alps at times pours down in sudden torrents. 

There is a broad belt of high table-land, running east 
and west, from the Alps to the coast of France. For 
want of water, it is nearly barren. 

Three great wants are here. Too much water in one 
direction, a scarcity in another. From manufacturers in 
one direction comes a cry for water-power, while too 
much water-power is the evil of the Rhone country. 

The commission suggests a practical plan by which 
cheap reservoirs can be made to take off the floods, and 
thus supply irrigation by canal to the vast country now 
desolate from drought, and to create water-powers 
4 


50 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


equal to the largest demand of industry. It will redeem 
the banks of the Rhone, it will convert the destructive 
sun-baking of Central France into the most valuable 
ripening power, and it will create a grand highway of 
cheap water-communication of priceless estimation ! 

Why does America lead the world in mechanic inven¬ 
tion and ingenious devices ? Because of sundry evils 
that give spur to invention. Her too costly labor op¬ 
presses her producers with foreign goods. This com¬ 
pels invention of machinery to cheapen production. 
The slavish devotion to gain that knows no holidays, 
and the exhaustive effects of a stimulant climate that 
sallows the complexion, flattens the bosom, and tans the 
liver, give to the brain a marvelous quickness, and a 
sharpness of insight beyond the measure of other nation¬ 
alities. 

Till lately, the sinks of our cities have been a terrible 
evil. See how we have learned, by pressure of neces¬ 
sity, not only to get rid of the evil, but to convert it 
into a blessing, by a system of drainage that gives it 
useful direction over the fields ! 

Evil is a wonderful contrivance, that brings out the 
highest powers of the mind as nothing else could do. 
It is in battling against it that we find exercise and 
health. How much of it we even turn to profit! — so 
much, that one is led to suspect that all evil is equally 
convertible into good ; and that Providence permits no 
evil that it does not work into final good. 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


51 


ABORTIVE STRUGGLES TO GET UNADULTER¬ 
ATED GOOD. 

The orchard and the vineyard furnish instructive 
lessons. Why do our fruit-trees degenerate more than 
formerly ? What has overcome the vines and the mul¬ 
berry-trees of Europe ? The reason is quite apparent. 
Cultivators have tampered with Nature in its most deli¬ 
cate and exigent law, generation. If there be any 
law that forces its explication on us more than others, it 
is that where art seeks to restrict Nature to the growth 
of a few r varieties, having only such qualities as serve 
certain purposes, and thus interferes with the law of 
constant variation that is necessary to health: loss of 
vigor is the penalty. The plant runs into scrofulous 
precocity, that makes it a prey to spring frosts, insect 
ravages, diseased leaves, untimely fruit-fall, and early 
decay. Visiting with a New-England friend an orchard 
of grafted trees planted by his father in A. D. 1800, 
decay was conspicuous in every tree; but the older 
come-by-chance apple-trees, that were here and there 
outside the orchard-ground, were vigorous and fruitful. 
The owner said he could not account for it. The 
orchard-trees had always received careful attention, 
the others none at all. Transplanting is a weakening 
process, grafting is another ; but ingrafting ever the 
same varieties is like inbreeding among cattle, and 
intermarrying of cousins. Constant pruning to force 
larger fruitage is destroying the vigor of the vines, like 
analagous prostitution of the powers in manhood. 


52 THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

The mulberry-trees of Europe are degenerating from 
similar causes. They cut and carve for large leafage, 
and they strip as closely as they dare. Both processes 
make tender leaves and over-juicy; and these scour the 
worms, which, in turn, make fragile silk when they 
escape the untimely fate of sickly constitutions. Other 
causes are killing the silk-worms. It is the fashion to 
select only the largest cocoons for generation. The eggs 
of these are by no means the most vigorous; probably 
the reverse. Certainly, the unnatural exclusion of 
all others tends to degeneracy. Were only the biggest 
men and women mated, we should expect similar con¬ 
sequences. Nature, left to its own coupling, gives us 
safer guidance. 

The remedy for diseases from ingrafting is obvious. 
The stock degenerating from abuse must be referred 
back to Nature. We should be ever cultivating; new 
varieties from the seed ; and, in making selections from 
these, it may prove wise to allow some to stand 
among the rest that may not suit our taste: but their 
strong pollen may give vigor to the fruitage of those 
that do. 

The lesson we derive from these revelations is that 
unmixed good is not healthful nor profitable for us; 
that it is not to be obtained by any device; that, when 
we are getting measurably a preponderance of good, we 
should be content to bear, in patient submission to in¬ 
exorable law, the smaller proportion of evil, with which, 
for reasons we cannot question, it has pleased Provi¬ 
dence to season all its blessings. 

o 


PHYSICAL EVIL. 


53 


THE HARMONY OF NATURE. 

The whole broad earth is beautiful 
To minds attuned aright; 

And, wheresoe’er thy feet are turned, 

A smile will meet thy sight. 

The city, with its bustling walk, 

Its splendor, wealth, and power; 

A ramble by the river-side ; 

A passing summer flower; 

The meadow green; the ocean swell; 

The forest waving free, — 

Are gifts of God, and speak in tQnes 
• Of kindliness to thee. 

CAROLINE GILMAN. 

To view Nature rightly, to appreciate the wisdom 
and beauty of its laws, we must look upon it as we do 
upon a scenic painting on the stage. If we draw too 
near, and examine too closely, we see a confused mass 
of blots, blurs, and indistinct nebulae. It is only when 
we view it from such a distance as enables us to com¬ 
mand the whole landscape, with all its lights and shades, 
that its beauties become apparent, and the dark spots 
show their usefulness. In truth, if each object on the 
canvas were drawn elaborately perfect, so as to please 
the microscopic eye, the picture would want that 
blending of the objects, that running into each other, 
which gives softness and finish to the perfect land¬ 
scape. 

If we view the great works of creation in this man¬ 
ner, we cannot fail to observe the beauty and harmony 
' of the whole. What shade is to the landscape, evil is 


54 THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

to the scheme of Providence. It is the pepper, the salt, 
and the mustard, which, taken separately, are evil to 
the taste, but, being blended in proper proportions with 
our food, give it grateful flavor and healthy digestion. 

Let him who would know his own nature, and the 
relation in which he stands to his Creator and to his 
fellow-man, direct his study to those ever-living reve¬ 
lations of the purpose and will of Heaven that are 
open to all mankind alike in the works of creation. Pie 
who contemplates the Deity in his works will feel ever 
conscious of his immediate presence. The love that 
breathes throughout will inspire him with kindred good¬ 
ness ; and his heart, if it be not adamant, cannot incline 
to iniquity. 

“ One impulse from a vernal wood 
May teach you more of man, 

Of moral evil, and of good, 

Than all the sages can.” 

Truth flows from every rill. Rich maxims sparkle in 
the dewdrops. The clustered fruit and golden corn 
proclaim a bounteous Providence. Each mated pair 
breathes a lesson of love. The lambkins commend us 
to cheerfulness and innocence of heart. There is music 
from heaven in the tree-tops and in the surf alono- the 
shore. In the crowded haunts of men, the very mur¬ 
mur of mixed voices is melodious. In the green fields 
and woody shades, the happy songsters proclaim a soul 
of beneficence somewhere presiding, that turns all 
partial evil into universal good. 


PART SECOND. 


MORAL EVIL. 













,r«c ; . diaoti-iii ■ ■■> :! • • - 

, buuK to yfllJGH 

- 

i M.* 








MORAL EVIL. 


WHAT IS MORAL LAW? 

“ I form the light, and I create darkness ; I make peace, and I create 
evil : I the Lord do all these things.” 

The moral law is not easy to separate from the physi¬ 
cal or natural law by any clearly-marked line of distinc¬ 
tion ; so intimately are they related, and so absolute is 
the dependence of moral law upon the initiative of physi¬ 
cal restriction and natural or necessary compulsion. As 
the fish is compelled to murderous propensities to get 
his living in the element in which he is placed by Nature; 
so is man necessarily provided with instincts, passions, 
and propensities to be used under requirement of the 
physical elements in which he is to live and move. 

The brain in man, and in all living animals that have 
it, is the organ that produces all mental manifestations, 
by elaboration from the material supplied in daily food. 
The organ is under physical or natural law: but, in 
man’s case, the manifestations assume the name of mind; 
and there the law which governs changes its name to 
moral law, and it is supposed, in a sense at least, to 
become independent of natural law. But this is not 
without difficulty. The mind is swayed by what we eat 
and drink. If the brain be malformed or distempered, 
or injured in its organs, the mind partakes of its defects, 

57 



58 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


as a child takes after its parents. This involves interest¬ 
ing questions as to how far the physical control the 
moral results. There appears to be so much intimacy 
and dependence between the spirit and the material 
elements, that we must conclude they are subject to one 
common law. Every step in the examination of moral 
evil corroborates this probability. 

The moral law we shall consider as that which con¬ 
cerns the social intercourse of mankind ; that which 
gives to man mental pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, 
and a sense of responsibility to an overruling Provi¬ 
dence. Whatever is unpleasant to us in this circuit we 
call moral evil. 

After the same manner as we treated of physical evil, 
we propose to examine, separately, the most prominent 
moral evils that afflict mankind; to show that each has 
its useful purpose; that it is indispensable as a law of 
social structures ; that without it there could be no moral 
life; and that, in all cases, it is only the element from 
which good is elaborated. To what useful end can this 
study conduce ? It will teach us that it is the pleasant 
task of Heaven to be continually making good out of 
evil; that it has bestowed upon us the same institution, 
that we, too, may find pleasure in following the example ; 
that, to fit us for this duty, we must first well under¬ 
stand the nature of evil and the laws which govern it. 
This accomplished, we learn to love and practice the art 
of turning the evils of life to advantage ; to deal kindly 
with the erring, turning him from his ways; and to 
bear with resignation such evils as our efforts fail to con¬ 
vert into the special form of immediate good that may 
seem to us as individually desirable. 


MORAL EVIL. 


59 


THE MORAL WORLD ALSO REVOLVES. 

" What is the moral of all human tales ? 

’Tis but the same rehearsal of the past, — 

Eirst freedom, and then glory ; when that fails, 

Wealth, vice, corruption.” 

The earth has its ever-changing circuits. Where the 
arctic circle now is, probably once was the torrid zone, 
as the bodies of its huge elephants now seem to attest. 
Land is rising here, and sinking there. Islands are 
forming everywhere in the Pacific Ocean, so much in 
line as to make it surely, in time, a new continent. 
What is surface everywhere now is daily being washed 
away to take its place below the present soil. 

So nations, offspring of the earth, rise and fall. For 
a time, they flourish; then luxury, oppression, and cor¬ 
ruption send them to decay, and a new birth begins. 
Egypt, Greece, and Rome are examples. 

Men, being the atoms that compose nations, must 
necessarily be subject to this law of birth, progress, and 
decay ; and there is a new birth in the descendants that 
take their vacated places. The analogy is so strong, 
that we cannot escape the conviction that all are subject 
to one common law, and are impelled in their circuits 
by the same fundamental necessity. It will be seen 
that what we call the evils of life are the driving powers 
that give us, also, never-ceasing movement around our 
allotted moral circuits. 


60 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


CIVILIZATION AND ITS INEVITABLE EVILS. 

The first necessary step in civilization is the division 
of property, and the union of many for the maintenance 
of that division. No improvement can be made until 
this security is afforded to individual industry. Each 
one, then, surrenders a certain portion of his individual 
liberty for the common welfare. This restraint is the 
first evil; and it furnishes a clear elucidation of the 
use of all moral evils, viz., it is the single grain of corn 
taken from the granary to secure a harvest of many 
grains. 

Life is a system of wants impelling us to action, and 
of gratifications in supplying them. Had we no wants, 
we should have no pleasures; for pleasure is a want 
supplied. As civilization increases our comforts, it must 
multiply our wants, else progress would stop. For this 
indispensable purpose, ambition, pride, envy, avarice, 
fashion, and a host of other evils, start up to stimulate 
us to healthy activity. Not one of these agents can 
be spared. Having exhausted home-resources, we long 
for things dear-bought and far-fetched. This whim, so 
much ridiculed, has a highly useful effect. It opens 
commercial and social intercourse between distant parts 
of the earth. Here a new set of devices draws out the 
human mind. Geography, astronomy, naval architec¬ 
ture, international law, and a thousand arts and sciences 
connected with them, open a vast field for the exercise 
of labor and the development of genius, that would else 
remain dormant. 


MORAL EVIL. 


61 


The nicest perfection of art is requisite for scientific 
instruments and for all accurate meters. The most 
slavish subdivision of labor is rendered necessary to 
secure this nicety. Complicated laws are essential to 
regulate and protect, the varied interests that grow out 
of the intricacies of extended trade and commerce. 
From the industrial ranks is taken an army of legisla¬ 
tors, judges, officers, &c., who must be fed by the pro¬ 
ducing classes. This taxation is looked upon as an evil; 
but who can fail to see its necessity ? The apparent re¬ 
muneration of the laborer is but a small portion of his 
reward. He enjoys his share of the security and the 
comforts which only a government well administered 
and thus sustained can afford. Withdraw his contribu¬ 
tion, and let the government cease to extend its pro¬ 
tection to commerce and to individual possessions, and 
the market of the laborer would be closed, his farm 
ravaged, and himself driven to his cave for shelter. 


OVERPRODUCTION. 

As wealth accumulates, and machinery multiplies, 
production becomes in excess of consumption. This 
grinds the face of the hand-worker, and the tradesman 
grows unscrupulous. Yet excess of production is 
the parent of all trade and commerce, the mother of 
plenty. It should be the last of our complaints, and 
the first in rank of our thankful aspirations. When¬ 
ever it is wanting, monopoly plays the oppressor and 
the tyrant. For one that suffers from too much bread, 
a thousand are blessed. 


62 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


In the natural arrangement of the elemental move- 
ments, there are ever-changing variations of weather due 
to laws that are for the best, — rain here, and drought 
there. In any series of years, each finds he gets his 
average complement, and by easy devices. It is in the 
power of all peoples to drain off* the excess of water, 
and to supply moisture as the occasion may require. 
England gives us example of the one, Lombardy of the 
other: and, where it is impractical to follow, Providence 
supplies Artesian springs, that turn even the deserts of 
Algeria to fertility; showing for how many of the 
larger evils there is a remedy in our own hands 

The season that favors one crop is seldom, from the 
difference of requirement, the best for some other crops. 
But, for every country that is short, there are always 
over-stocks elsewhere, which commerce is quick to 
supply; and the price is an excellent gauge to indicate 
how earnest is the want. 

Overproduction is a useful device to promote inter¬ 
course, and to activate the arts and sciences incident 
to navigation and commerce, besides promoting health 
by appetizing interchange of food. The great inventive 
spirit of the age comes from the spur of overproduction. 


THE LABOR-MOVEMENT. 

There is a movement so general in America for redu¬ 
cing the hours of labor, that we regard it as a provi¬ 
dential inspiration. It seems as if it were a necessary 
link in the chain of circumstances, that makes a new 


MORAL EVIL. 


63 


era in the progress of high civilization. Plenty, very 
great abundance, we should be thankful for; but when 
superabundance of machine-production throws human 
hands out of the means of earning bread, and makes 
unhealthy engorgement in all the channels of trade, 
it becomes us to seek a remedy in check of the excess 
of evil. 

This movement for reducing the toil of the hand¬ 
worker seems a sure remedy so far as it goes. If the 
abridgment were general, it would work good to many, 
and evil to nobody. No proposition can be more 
reasonable than this ; viz., that, when machinery is so 
generally taking the place of hand-labor, it ought to be 
its first good effect to relieve the human workers of 
some hours of toil: else the working-men do not get 
their direct share of the benefits. Though indirectly 
they derive certain advantages of increased comforts, 
still there is a balance of relief due to them ; and we 
feel sure, that, in according it, every interest will be 
benefited. So great, indeed, is the pressure of mechani¬ 
cal overproduction, making employment precarious, that 
it might not be unwise legislation, if it could be enforced, 
to cut down production by prohibiting men from work¬ 
ing more than eight hours a day. 

But, say some people, how will they employ this new 
leisure ? Will it not induce vice ? 

Let us see. Our system of public schools has 
brought our mechanics up to a point of education that 
fits them, not only by mental ability, but by taste and 
strong appetite, for safe intrustment in this matter. 
Why has Providence put it into the national head to 
thus instruct the laborer, and give him appetite for cul- 


64 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


tivation of mind, if it do not also provide corresponding 
leisure for the exercise of this inspiration ? Already we 
see everywhere proofs that Providence has fully pre¬ 
pared our mechanics for the purpose. 

Their public libraries rival those of the merchant- 
class ; they crowd our lecture-rooms; they read the 
journals. Their own mechanic journals are full of 
talent. In places of high trust, in halls of legislation, 
wherever placed, they are not inferior. 

Scarce a man amongst them that is not informed on 
the issues of the day. The mechanic of to-day is far 
above the mechanic of former days. 

Say you that all this does not point to a concession 
of time as a necessary link to complete the chain of 
providential adaptation? We look upon the overtasked 
lot of the laboring classes as an evil that is doubled by 
educating them ; and we believe this movement is de¬ 
signed to bring this evil within bounds, which the attend¬ 
ant circumstances of the age imperiously demand. 


“TRUTH IS MIGHTY, AND WILL PREVAIL.’ 

The progress of error was always and ever will be 
more rapid than the march of truth. Men listen 
with appetite to the seductions of evil doctrines, because 
they are usually presented in attractive form, and pressed 
with eloquence. Truth is severe : it unwisely scorns to 
use means to win people to its acceptance. For this 
reason, what is called orthodoxy gives us dull sermons, 
while heterodoxy keeps us awake. If orthodoxy would 


MORAL EVIL. 


65 


spend half the eloquence in the service of truth that it 
does in fighting against error, our churches would do a 
power of good. 

Let any new truth be announced in science or in 
moral philosophy, orthodoxy only requires to know that 
it does not square with its doctrines, and at once it is 
down on the innovation with merciless condemna¬ 
tion. It values an old error always above a new truth, 
as if the dark ages alone could know truth, and 
nothing but error remained after the exhaustion of 
their wisdom. 

It is not truth but fiction that prevails in the world. 
Seventy-five per cent of all our reading and moralistic 
moulding is derived from works of fiction. 

It is so ordained, that, without constant care, the purest 
wheat will run into tares; and the purest truth runs 
soon to error if no one is interested to keep it con¬ 
stantly weeded of corruptions. There is no miraculous 
protection of truth from this tendency, so necessary 
to keep our minds in activity and our hearts in ear¬ 
nest. 

Fear of investigation is alike suspicious in theology, 
in jewelry, and in science. Eternal vigilance and the 
largest freedom are the only safeguards of truth against 
corruption. 

Truth and genuine diamonds court inspection. You 
are sure it is untruth, or paste jewelry, when it fears and 
denounces investigation. 


66 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


GAMBLING. 

• 

Among all the children of men, gambling in some 
form has existed from the beginning. Every tribe of 
Indians has its games of hazard; but the higher the 
civilization, the greater the gambling. Here is a se¬ 
quence that gives us a clew to its uses. 

All trade and commerce between the nations of the 
world originate, and are sustained and quickened, by the 
spirit of adventure, — the nerve to put at risk one dollar 
on the chance of losing, or of getting two in exchange. 
Whether this is done by bull and bear adventures on 
the stock-exchange, in buying and selling on time-risks 
in the grain-market, by mercantile ventures abroad, by 
betting on horse-racing, cock-fights, elections, or by 
games of chess or cards, it is the same inborn spirit 
seeking outlet. From its universality, it so savors of 
law, that we suspect it is necessary to some useful pur¬ 
pose in the human economy that it have exercise and 
outlet. But some forms have cheating. Alas ! decep¬ 
tion is in all forms. In the various temperaments that 
make up the circles of human character, some have 
preference for one kind of gambling, some for another. 
This is in the nature of things. It is only at the ex¬ 
treme end of the long and complex line of its exercise, 
that we condemn it, and call it criminal. To destrov 
the love of hazard is not possible. The best we can 
do is to win over the players from such forms as offend 
public sentiment, by attracting them to other forms less 
objectionable. Some attempt in this way is seen at the 


MORAL EVIL. 


67 


public gaming-tables at German watering-places ; and 
certainly stock-gaming is working wonders in the same 
direction. The struggle for life oppresses the brain and 
hardens the heart. Exhilaration of some kind is a 
necessary relief. Gambling is one of this kind, and it 
breeds more generous impulses than shopkeeping. 


DISPARITY OF CONDITION. 

“ Read the world’s history, and treasure deep 
The sad lesson : ne’er was palace made 
But the thatched hovel sprang beneath its shade.” 

If there were no disparity in the physical aspects of 
men, we should have no means of distinguishing one 
from another. If all had the same tastes and capacities, 
every man would pursue the same object, and crave the 
same food. It is only by giving the greatest diversity 
to our tastes, that we eat up every thing, and every 
branch of industry is supplied with talent adequate to 
its wants. 

Society is a vast complex working-machine, whose 
parts are men. A variety of complicated work is 
required. Some parts are necessarily arranged to do 
the heavier work ; others will be very delicate, to finish 
the lighter fabrics. “ The governor ” of the engine, 
meantime, has only the task to move its arms, and the 
whole machine obeys. 

The exigencies of social life make it necessary that 
some do the thinking and planning. Some must direct, 
others roust account: soine branches of labor are coarse, 


68 THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

others fine. Custom, like a second nature, habituates 
men to their branch of work. The skin-dresser and the 
tanner observe no smell; and snuff-makers do not 
sneeze. The miner gets to like the darkness and even 
temperature under ground, and prefers not to work 
above ground, however others may be attracted by 
daylight and blue sky. 

If wealth did not accumulate in some hands, no pub¬ 
lic work, no commerce, could be conducted. If all had 
wealth, nobody would work, and material progress 
would cease. The great stimulus to progress is the love 
of wealth. It promotes industry and frugal habits ; it 
sustains ambition, and it gives to every power of inven¬ 
tion a sustained quickening that no other device could 
assure. Wealth and poverty are -the two extremes, 
the system of rewards and punishments, which, as in all 
religions, are indispensable to induce men to take the 
better course, and to deter them from idleness and vice. 

It is because there is a necessity for the evils of dis¬ 
parity of condition; and it is a proof of that necessity, 
that all schemes to equalize conditions by organization 
of social communities have ever proved short-lived and 
impracticable. 


RICH AND POOR MEN. 

“ 'Tis better to be lowly born, 

And range with humble livers in content, 

Than to be perked up in a glittering grief, 

• And wear a golden sorrow.” 

In the unequal distribution of wealth, Providence has 
not been so partial as the poor man imagines. The 


MORAL EVIL. 


69 


difference in the amount of happiness between two per¬ 
sons depends upon their unsatisfied wants. Who ever 
saw a rich man have enough ? In the drawing-rooms 
of the affluent, “ luxury lies straining its low thought to 
form unreal wants,” which, being too easily supplied, 
confer little pleasure. Their food is not seasoned* with 
appetite, and indigestion turns it to disease. The wants 
of the humble are few, natural, and healthy. The 
bread of the poor may be hard to get; he may sigh for 
the hour of repose : but, when obtained, mark with what 
excellent appetite he enjoys them ! He has vassals and 
serfs that wealth cannot command; and no costly con¬ 
serves are so sweet as those that finish his repast. Ap¬ 
petite and digestion wait, and health is the priceless 
dessert. No gorgeous tapestry that adorns the canopy 
of luxury can match the rosy dreams that bedeck the 
couch of the lowly. 

u 9 Tis shameful to hear you complain ! ” said a noble¬ 
man to a beggar who devoured his morsel before him. 
“ I’d give half my fortune for your appetite ! ” 

When the laborer is engaged in earning his honest 
bread, mischief sleeps, and virtue is secure. Idleness 
is the parent of vice. The horrors of ennui drive its 
victim to the haunts of shame, where, for morbid excite¬ 
ment, he barters health and happiness. 

“ The rich man,” says the Chinese proverb, “ is a 
pig encumbered with fat.” No figure can be more 
appropriate. As wealth accumulates, the dread of 
using it accompanies, generosity fades, charity is shut 
out, and, when a trifle is lost, how it afflicts the soul ! 
Wealth thus becomes a burden that is dragged along 
with pain through life ; and, when death comes, how 
bitter the parting! 


70 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


“ They call him rich ; I deem him poor: 

Since if he dare not use his store, 

But saves it for his heirs, 

The treasure is not his, but theirs.” 

That the man of wealth does not work, that he is free 
from care, is a great mistake. The toil of the mechanic 
has its hour of limit, and sound sleep gives him certain 
refreshment. The toil of head-work never ceases. The 
cares and anxieties of the rich haunt their midnight 
hours, and poison sleep. 

“ Sleep, gentle sleep, 

Nature’s soft nurse, how doth care affright thee ! 

That thou no more wilt weigh the eyelids down, 

And steep the senses in forgetfulness.” 

The miserly propensities that grow up with wealth 
make the rich man, at best, a hard-working, ever-wake- 
ful watchman, hired at mean wages to guard a treasure. 
It avails himself nothing. Who ever saw a man made 
really more happy, more benevolent, more virtuous, by 
growing rich ? What, then, have the poor to envy ? 
“ Plenty of money, and nothing to do ! ” They know 
not what they ask. The physical surplus cannot enter 
their domain without making room by displacing all the 
moral treasures that give to life its sweetness. Nothing 
can be more pernicious than the practice of exciting the 
poor against the rich, seeing that accumulations of 
wealth are indispensable to the progress of civilization. 
Indeed, if freedom from care, and the possession of 
happiness, be the true objects of desire, the gilded clay 
of the wealthy should not excite the envy of the wise. 


MOBAL EVIL. 


71 


THE USE OF ROGUES AND THIEVES. 

In much wisdom, God has made the varied characters of men : some 
exalted and blessed, some low and cursed; good against evil, life against 
death. In all the works of God, this antagonist principle prevails, — 
one thing against another. (See Eccles. xxxiii. 11, and xlii. 24). 

Production and consumption go hand in hand together 
in every department of Nature. Wherever life springs 
up, antagonist powers arise to prey ’ on its exuberance, 
and to insure its final destruction. Every living thing 
has its parasites, and its consumptive diseases. With¬ 
out this provision, there would be no food and no eaters : 
there would be no life. Human possessions, which are 
also Nature’s products, must be subject to the same laws 
of course. 

It has been shown, that, for indispensable purposes, 
wealth must form accumulations in some hands. It is 
equally necessary for the safety of society that this ten¬ 
dency shall be kept within some limits. Now, there is 
no occupation in which men are so unceasingly, untir¬ 
ingly engaged, as in the pursuit of wealth. 

“ The universal idol, gold, 

In homage each unites ; 

Without a temple he’s adored, 

And he has no hypocrites.” 

To keep in check so powerful a tendency, and to insure 
redistribution, the most vigorous, violent, and unceasing 
measures are evidently imperative. Nature gives the 
example. She sets the elements at work to dilapidate 


72 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


our walls, — fires to consume, storms to wreck, our prop¬ 
erty. Even the infant raindrop, the soft zephyr, and 
the smiling river, cannot visit us without carrying away 
something. Birds, beasts of prey, armies of insects, 
rats and mice, weeds, and a host of allies, are the natu¬ 
ral thieves and robbers provided for this useful purpose. 
There is not a useful plant that grows that has not a 
counterfeit to awaken our vigilance. 

For the distribution of artificial accumulations, a set 
of equally numerous, equally violent, and every way 
analogous antagonists must be provided under this law. 
Men only can perform this function; and we find no 
lack of vagabonds for the occasion. In no department 
is the call of Nature more promptly answered. Swin¬ 
dlers, robbers, counterfeiters, though held up to exclusive 
ignominy, constitute a very insignificant proportion of 
the innumerable host of plunderers necessary for a work 
so extensive. It needs a process analogous to the con¬ 
stant and invisible evaporation by which the great 
waters are taken up and redistributed. And just such 
a contrivance is provided. Petty cheating, specious 
beggars, gamblers, small thieving, speculative schemes, 
and the like, do more in this way, a thousand-fold, than 
all that is paraded on the criminal calendars. This 
provision is yet not entirely adequate to the purpose, as 
may be observed in periods of long-continued prosperity. 
Accumulations oppress the morals, and beget inordinate 
pride, vice, and corruption. To check this, Providence 
sends a special commission in the form of stock-bubbles, 
and all sorts of wild speculations, that enfever the public 
brain like an epidemic, and that do not let up till there 
has been such healthy depletion as the moral health 


MORAL EVIL. 


73 


demands. It is especially operative on those who have 
grown most suddenly rich. 

Money-getting is a useful faculty. But we shall see 
presently that there are many other powerful means 
contrived to keep down accumulations to the level of 
public safety. Seldom is it allowed to stagnate. In 
whatever hands, honest or dishonest, it is kept in useful 
circulation, and the benefits inure to general prosperity. 
If the rich man suffers, it is chiefly from self-imposed 
cares incident to over-riches. 


THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 

It is to the criminal propensities of man that we owe 
civilization. Crime first suggests and compels men to 
organize, that a system of defence may be adopted 
against this evil. Society is kept in activity by a sys¬ 
tem of impulses and restraints, checks and counter¬ 
checks. Without some equivalent contrivance, the 
constant motion its health requires could not be main¬ 
tained. Rogues are a necessary evil of this sort. That 
they should, however, be permitted to go unchecked in 
their turn, would be an anomaly in Nature. Besides, 
an important part of their office would fail of its purpose 
if their depredations did not rouse us to action. 

Society is compelled in self-defence to keep up a con¬ 
tinual counter-warfare against them ; and their punish¬ 
ment is rendered necessary, not for revenge certainly, 
but to keep the whole class from exceeding the useful 
limit of their distributive functions, lest they should 


74 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


become a greater evil than that which they are designed 
to prevent. 

Every work of Nature oscillates from the strict math¬ 
ematical centre; but it Ifas a self-regulating power to 
correct its aberrations. So in every moral circle, the 
obliquities are corrected by a power inherent in itself, 
after the manner described. 


PETTY VEXATIONS. 

“ Life’s smallest miseries are perhaps its worst. 

The heart 

Consumes with these small sorrows and small shames: 

We blush that they exist ; and yet how keen 

The pang that they inflict! ” 

The petty vexations of life, and the ebullition of ill 
humor they provoke, are of the greatest importance to 
us. As flies in the sultry summer annoy us, and rouse 
us from unhealthy indolence, so these little crosses stir 
up the passions, and save them from extinction. The 
finest intellect, the strongest mind, that faces unmoved 
the larger evils of life, is most apt to be taken off its 
guard by insignificant trifles. These small irritations 
are evidently required to act with increased frequency 
and intensity in proportion as the passions are schooled 
against healthy excitement from larger sources. 

The large and vitally important reverses, for which 
we should be always prepared, are happily so few, that 
the passions necessary to combat them could not be 
kept alive if solely dependent for exercise on such 
occasions. It is therefore obviously necessary that 


MORAL EVIL. 


75 


they be kept in daily drill at home ; just as soldiers in 
peace keep up the martial spirit by drilling, by petty 
quarrels, duels, and wrangling brawls. The man whose 
easy life has not been kept in drill by small misfortunes 
sinks helpless under the first blast of adversity. 

Petty vexations serve another useful purpose in the 
economy of the mental structure. The mind, like the 
body, requires the expulsion of the waste made in 
the production of every act of thought and passion. 
Continued mental labor, if not relieved by outbursts of 
passion -at trifles, would soon provoke insanity. Hence 
the proverbial irritability of genius saves it from mad¬ 
ness. Where the studious are confined very closely, 
the difficulty of finding objects to let loose upon drives 
them into the kitchen, where, by a meddling scrutiny, 
they can readily find vent for any excess of ill humor. 
How we fret about “the stupidity of servants” ! But 
how much more should we complain if they were to 
exchange the stupidity which makes them servants, for 
wit which might make them our masters! 

We should always remember that we pay servants 
the wages of labor, and not of head-work; and that, in 
the march of general education under the public school 
system, we may soon have a worse trouble than stupidi¬ 
ty, viz., knowing too much to stoop to our service. 
This should make us tolerant. 

In a Dorsetshire paper we noticed an advertisement 
for a servant, preference being given to one who could 
not read nor write. 


76 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


FAMILY MIFFS. 

As Lent is a healthful abstinence, and is followed by 
joyous Easter, fruitful of feasting and rich interchange 
of warm geetings; so is the miff a grand institution for 
giving needful repose and after-exhilaration to overtasked 
affection. 

After a sulky calm in the height of growing-time, 
there comes a gush of electricity that gives to vegetable 
generation stimulus extraordinary and fruitage enlarged. 
It is probable that in human life it works analogous 
results. The flood of dammed-up love bursts forth after 
a miff-time with electric surcharge ; and no doubt there 
is resultant improvement. 


THE CONDITION OF IRELAND. 

The condition of the Irish nation presents a study 
curious and instructive. The question is, What provi¬ 
dential purpose is subserved by the peculiar retardation 
of Ireland in the march of progress ? Excepting Bel¬ 
fast and Limerick, the factory system has not obtained 
extension in Ireland, and there is a great absence of 
mines. 

These two deficiencies remove the most fruitful sources 
of immorality and decrepitude. There is scarcely any 
thing like luxurious living. The simple, pastoral life 
and food of the people preserve for their children pure 


MORAL EVIL. 


77 


and uncorrupted blood, wild almost as Nature. They 
multiply amazingly, and this drives them abroad for 
means of life. 

Providence has given the Irish, while in their own 
country, a peculiar temper, that prevents their organiz¬ 
ing under any competent leadership to change their 
condition. Moderation in council is wanting, and pa¬ 
tience of restraint. 

There must be a purpose in this destiny. 

From the isles of Britain it has pleased the Creator 
to send forth vast currents of emigration all over the 
world, displacing inferior races in America, in India, in 
Africa, in Australia. Everywhere this is going on ; 
but everywhere abroad the constitution fails in all the 
descendants of Europe. Irish blood stands it best. 
In America, the ruddy complexion fades, often in the 
first generation. Soon the lungs grow delicate, torpor 
seizes the liver, the bosom flattens, and uterine irregu¬ 
larities accompany. The brain holds its own. In India, 
the entire white race becomes extinct in the third gene¬ 
ration. This is a fact of official record. To hold 
dominion there, fresh blood must be supplied from 
Europe after the second generation: in time, the con¬ 
stitution may be changed by continual infusion of new 
blood, or by other causes. Something like this affects 
all the fruit-stock that is sent abroad; and it is found 
necessary to seek for wild native stock upon which to 
ingraft the foreign. 

If it were designed by Providence to keep Ireland as 
a nursery of pure and hardy human stock to supply 
fresh vigor for this recuperation, it would seem that its 
condition is calculated for the purpose. 


78 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


Certainly the intermixture of Irish blood is every¬ 
where a physical improvement; and it is also note¬ 
worthy that their form of religion tends to preserve its 
purity. 

There is a singular analogy in the guano islands, 
which supply renovation to distant soils, doing always 
well abroad ; but which at home, from excess of rich 
stimulus, can make no growth for themselves. 

There are signs that indicate a change. Having 
served the purpose of its lowly condition, it seems to be 
about being elevated to a higher position among the 
nations of progress. If Ireland and Germany would 
promote intermarriage, each would find improvement. 
This cross is common in America, and the stock is ex¬ 
cellent. 


INFERIOR RACES. — SLAVERY. — MIGRATION. 

Men and animals, like the productions of the soil, are 
created to suit the various climates of the earth. Where 
the climate gives support with least application, men are 
torpid in body and mind. Where men have to use fore¬ 
sight, and battle with natural obstacles of climate and 
soil, they are provided with superior minds. To each 
is given, according to his necessities, in fair distribution. 

The first-mentioned we call inferior races; the last, 
superior. For reasons analogous to the physical law of 
interchanging currents in the air and ocean, there have 
ever been movements, or currents of migration, among 
mankind; and, as we find it in the records of geology, 
races of men and animals become, in time, extinct, and 


MORAL EVIL. 


79 


new races of superior order take- tlieir places. In our 
day, we see the gray rat of Norway making his way 
over the earth, and exterminating the native blue rats. 
He has now nearly finished the extinction of the in¬ 
ferior race in California. 

The gray squirrel has invaded America, destroying 
the black variety; and a species of red squirrel assists. 
The gray house-fly, though smaller, yet more vigorous, 
is fast ousting the blue-black fly of Australia. The red 
ant conquers the black. The Indian conquers the 
buffalo, and the white man has nearly completed the 
extermination of the red man. 

The same thing is going on in the ocean, — the great 
leviathan is hunted down by the sword-fish and the 
thresher ; and man is hastening his period of extinction. 
The white man is everywhere performing similar service 
on the earth. In Australia, and the many islands 
thereabouts, it is to be seen that bushmen, and kindred 
races, are doomed to extinction. 

Wherever climate will permit the white man to till 
the soil, and there is antipathy to amalgamation, the 
native race is doomed. 

But there are at this time interesting and instructive 
examples of a variation in the working of this law of 
the war of races. The English have possessed them¬ 
selves of Hindostan, and, under the law, they would 
finally exterminate the yellow men. But Englishmen 
die out there after the second generation. Hindoos alone 
can cultivate the soil: therefore they are retained; for 
without them the country would be uninhabitable. 
The Hindoo has qualities fitting him for improvement. 
By training, he can fall into the march of progress. He 


80 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


knows the use of arms, he has courage, and, before Eng¬ 
land invaded, he had civilization, and nice honor, equal 
to the best Christianity. For example, the Hindoo 
reverences age so scrupulously, that, even in battle, he 
will not slay the gray beards. An officer who served 
long in India informed us, that, before a battle, the Eng¬ 
lish dyed their gray beards red, not to have the unfair 
advantage. Noble souls on both sides ! 

The mission of England appears to be, under Provi¬ 
dence, the regeneration of the Hindoos, tlieir advance¬ 
ment in the scale to make them a superior race; the 
transfusion of Caucasian blood assisting. 

The black race in America presents a problem of 
equal interest. Let us trace the cause of his enslave¬ 
ment in America from a providential point of view. 
Every evil has its uses, and its compensation of good. 
Why was the negro enslaved? ^That is the question. 

When America was first invaded by the British, cot¬ 
ton was a scant and.dear product. The world has had 
its nomadic age, its pastoral age, its iron age, its dark 
ages, its ages of poetry, of religious wars, of great geo¬ 
graphic discoveries, of conquests, &c. 

All these rotations were necessary, like rotation of 
crops and fallow years to the fields. The discovery of 
America, and the production of cotton in great supply 
and at low prices, were providential preparations for the 
new age to come, viz., the age of mechanical inven¬ 
tion, and of the substitution of artificial power and 
ingenious brainwork for the hand-toil of human mus¬ 
cle. It may be called the age of mental supremacy; 
for wealth of production cheapens brain-fertilizing food, 
and gives leisure for mental cultivation. We need not 


MORAL EVIL. 


81 


go into the history of cotton and its wonder-workings 
to prove that it was the prime mover of all these 
changes. 

The European constitution was at that time, and in 
that untamed soil, not competent to the culture of cot¬ 
ton. The Indian was not of stuff to bend down to the 
toil, nor could he be coerced. There was but one race 
that could do this great work for the purpose of Provi¬ 
dence, the negro. But he was by Nature invested 
with repugnance to toil. The muscle was there ; the 
climate agreed ; all was right, except his free will and 
inclination. These opposed: therefore to remove the 
obstacle, one only way being possible, coercion was used ; 
and it took the name of slavery. 

It served the purpose as no other way could. A 
milder form of servitude we never saw ; having seen it 
in a tour of observation undertaken expressly to exam¬ 
ine and report, and being made keen by a prime-moving 
prejudice. Let it be considered that it is not given to 
Caucasian laborers to get from a golden guinea and 
freedom a tithe of the enjoyment which we saw every¬ 
where in slavedom, distilled from a sixpence by the 
light-hearted, easy-worked, well fed and cared-for black 
of the Southern States. Beautifully God tempered his 
winds to this shorn lamb by giving him a happy disposi¬ 
tion, and to his master tenderness of heart. 

Exceptional cases have been trumpeted as general; 
but it speaks for itself, that, if so ill used, the race could 
not have so thrived and multiplied. We have noted 
the treatment of the free blacks in the North, and of 
the enslaved in the South ; and we speak truth when we 
say, it is only in the South that the negro ever found 
6 


82 


THE GOSPEL OP GOOD AND EVIL. 


kindly feeling, and toleration of personal presence. 
There he was always full fed and cared for. He was 
not an outcast; and, whatever occasional suffering he 
experienced at the South, it bore no comparison to the 
privations and abuses, the kicks^ and the cuffs, and 
general persecution, he has suffered North. 

But now he is free ; and it is plain to be seen that his 
happy days are turned to care. He is expected to be 
self cared for, to toil voluntarily as a white man must do 
to live in that climate ; and it is to be seen if he can 
come up to the expectations of the benevolent age that 
freed him. 

India, Egypt, Algeria, and other countries, can now 
supply the world with cotton ; and other fibres are taking 
its place. Beets are supplanting sugar-cane, and tobacco 
is grown everywhere. The negro is no longer a neces¬ 
sity. Benevolence has freed the black : but it can’t 
change his nature, nor supply Caucasian brain to his 
narrow skull; nor yet can it speed his gait to keep up 
with the white man in his lightning march of progress. 
Enthusiasm and pride of sentiment may spare him for 
the present; but the negro is no longer wanted in 
America: therefore, his mission ended, destiny will 
enforce his departure or his extinction. 

The exodus has begun. The same benevolence that 
freed him had foresight to see this inevitable result; and, 
long ago, it founded a new republic for his future home 
in his own country. The Colonization Society, govern¬ 
ment assisting, transported in 1867 twelve hundred 
blacks to Liberia; and thousands are applicants for 1868. 
There is a general desire to quit the country among the 
free blacks ; and a significant letter is published from one 


• MORAL EVIL. 


83 


of its transported people now settled in Africa. The 
black man says, 44 1 felt my inferiority in the States. 
I was among a superior race, whom I could not equal 
nor emulate. I felt ever conscious of this, and I had 
no heart. Here I find myself inferior to none, and 
whatever is in me comes out. It is a great thing to 
feel you are as good as your neighbors.” 

There is enough of white blood in the returning 
negroes (and this could only come of immoralities), of 
seated habits of civilization, and of moral and religious 
training, to insure a general regeneration and higher 
advancement of the negro race on that continent. 
These requisites could not have been attained by other 
means, so far as we can divine, than the plan Providence 
has pursued. For these requisites, the black race has 
paid in its temporary servitude. Slavery has tempo¬ 
rarily benefited the white race; and it has sent back to 
Africa the means of everlasting return in the general 
advancement of the black race. 

Human wisdom, if it will free its judgment from pre¬ 
judices, cannot fail to see in this circuit the workings 
of a beautiful law, by which Providence uses a tempo¬ 
rary evil to produce a lasting good. 

Among the curious devices of Providence to promote 
migration, the rate of wages becomes conspicuous. It 
was this that brought from Europe, and still keeps up, a 
constant current of migration to America and Australia. 
The same agency is relieving the supernumerous Chinese 
by a flow of unexampled migration to the British Prov¬ 
inces, to Siam, to Singapore, Manilla, Sandwich Islands, 
Peru, and California. And negotiations are pending to 
direct a new current of China laborers to Texas and 


84 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


Louisiana, which seems prophetic of an approaching 
exodus of the African race towards the land which best 
suits its future prosperity. 

The importance of this migration will be appreciated 
when we consider that already there are seventy thousand 
Chinamen in California. All are industrious workers, and 
all read and write. There is a very singular peculiarity 
in this migration, beyond former example. There are 
scarcely any women, except public characters. This has 
a meaning which we must study. Black and white have 
transfused superior blood through the black female only 
upon a scale of great extent. Should Providence de¬ 
sign transfusion of Caucasian blood into the Mongolian 
race, it must be through a reversal of this order of 
sexual connection. 

The Chinamen we speak of are but common laborers ; 
but they are quick-witted, and in every way superior to 
the negro. No people learn mechanical work so easily, 
for they get the hang of things at once. For good 
nature, contentment, orderly behavior, sobriety, indus¬ 
try, and economy, they give example worthy of imita¬ 
tion. 

The providential uses of their advent begin to appear 
in a demand from China for various products which 
their returned countrymen are spreading a taste for. It 
marks a step of progress. We can do more for China 
than for Africa, because it has greater capacity for 
advancement. China is about to enter into the family 
of nations, and this California migration is evidently as¬ 
sisting. It is its evident purpose. 

From Japan, there is to flow a new migration. The 
first arrivals consist, not of laborers, but of superior 


MORAL EVIL. 


85 


classes, who are in California to learn our language and 
our civilization, which they quickly acquire. 

The Japanese can hardly be spoken of as an inferior 
race. They are proud, warlike, learned, civilized, and 
highly skilled in the mechanical and fancy arts and 
sciences. They are the Yankees of Asia. They invent, 
and do much thinking. God has given them a religion 
replete with moral guidance, not inferior to ours. Their 
commercial probity is superior to ours in this, that fail¬ 
ures to meet obligations are quite uncommon. 

A peculiar difference is seen between Chinese and 
Japanese in California. One brooks insult: the other 
does not. Though much alike in person, the latter 
adopts our full dress, and so bears himself, that none feel 
tempted to offer him affront. 

If we treat these races as becomes the better reli¬ 
gion we profess, we may readily win them to the policy 
of adopting ours ; for the differences are merely dogmat¬ 
ical and very trifling. They are alike Asiatic. 

When the purposes of this Asiatic migration are fully 
revealed, there can be no doubt we shall see another 
instructive lesson in the law of compensation and self¬ 
regulation which we have endeavored to illustrate. 


TOBACCO. 

• “ Yes, social friend, I love thee well. 

In learned doctors’ spite: 

Thy clouds all other clouds dispel, 

And lap me in delight.” 

From the earliest records of our race, narcotics, like 
tobacco, have been in use, — the result of a natural 


86 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


appetite. China lias its opium ; India, the betel-nut and 
the hemp. Persia, Southern Africa, and Brazil use the 
hemp also, and so does Egypt, under the name of 
hashish. In Siberia, a species of fungus is used. Cocoa 
is the sedative of Bolivia and Peru; and the red thorn- 
apple, of New Grenada. England, all Europe, all 
America, and a vast extent of earth besides, have to¬ 
bacco. It is in vain to cry out against tobacco. Evi¬ 
dently it has its providential purpose, and is indispensable 
to some needful function in the human economy. 

Some philosopher says that women, to whom it is 
most offensive, derive from it the greatest protection. 
Many an. angry word and violent action are diverted 
from the wife and children by the soothing action of the 
pipe. 

Its effects must have some analogy to spirits ; and 
whatever reasons confine its use almost wholly to males 
are doubtless applicable alike to both. 

Dr. Velpeau read (June, 1862) to the Medical Society 
of Paris a paper from Dr. Deureaux of Puy l’Eveque, 
on tobacco. 

He has been directing inquiry for many years to the 
purposes which this curious plant subserves in the 
human system. 

He says, that, about twelve years ago, tobacco began 
to be a general staple of production in his section. It 
gradually came into use ; and now everybody smokes. 
The consequences have been marked, in the improved 
physical condition of the young men, as proved, more¬ 
over, by the returns of the Military Commission, which 
announces the fact from surgical inspection of the re¬ 
cruiting officers* 


MORAL EVIL. 


87 


The doctor respectfully recommends tlie encouragement 
of the use of tobacco in all tlie lyceums and colleges of 
France, because he has. satisfactorily established the 
fact that it greatly checks certain vicious habits, and 
counteracts their dreadful ravages on the constitution. 

This remarkable document was published some 
months after we had composed our present essay on in¬ 
toxicating drinks. It gives additional probability to the 
assumption that our investigations have struck upon the 
path which leads to the true purposes of all intoxicants, 
exhilarants, and sedatives ; and it lends a new illustra¬ 
tion that all social evils have their protective uses against 
still greater ones which are generated by the restraints 
of civilization. The strong appetites and passions, which 
Providence implanted in us for use, would find danger¬ 
ous issue when refused their natural outlets, were there 
no palliatives. Civilization means departure from, na¬ 
ture ; and, the more refined it is, the more such evils 
will call for resignation to a providential necessity, from 
which there is no escape. 


FASHION. 

“ And not a vanity is given in vain.” 

In the theory of religion, one of the great social evils 
is fashion. It is decried by the apostle ; and every 
pulpit has a word against it. 

Nevertheless, if we study the uses of fashion, and of 
its handmaid, vanity, we shall find that their conserva¬ 
tive influence upon morals, and their propulsive power 


88 * THE GOSPEL OF GOOD Al*D EVIL. 

in human progress, make them indispensable agents for 
good. It will be seen that the comparative evil is 
trifling, and due only to occasional excess incident to all 
good institutions ; and that it affords us excellent disci¬ 
pline in a variety of petty vexations and arousing jeal¬ 
ousies, that stir up the organ of emulation, to which 
refined civilization owes more than to any other source. 

Of all contrivances to redistribute unhealthy accu¬ 
mulations of wealth, fashion is the most admirable. In 
proportion as riches gather, so grows the desire to dis¬ 
play them. It is thus vanity is set to work levelling 
down barren mountains of wealth, and turning them 
into fertile fields of production. 

Expunge this evil from the earth, and there would 
come dire distress, such as never yet frowned upon the 
children of men. 

What would become of the vast looms and other 
millions of machinery of human industry, the- mines 
which supply motive-power, the thousand and one fine 
arts that strain invention, the ships of commerce that 
distribute their fabrics over the world, if fashion were 
not kept ever busy to sustain them, — ever contriving 
and demanding changes of style, and finer and finer 
perfection ? 

The moral agency of fashion does more than this for 
us. When it occupies a lady’s mind, be it in her leisure, 
at her toilet, or on parade, it is an absorbing passion 
overruling all others ; and she is not at home to the calls 
of mischief. And, when men are at pains to appear like 
gentlemen, they incline to behave so as not to betray a 
deception. 

Fashion, unlike wealth, is not a monopoly of the rich. 


MORAL EVIL. 


89 


Among the humblest, it supplies a stimulant to emulation, 
and an unction to self-esteem. From their restricted 
resources they manage to spin out as much vanity as 
the highest. A servant-girl happening to ride in a car¬ 
riage with her little finery and stock of airs, and a puff 
of self-esteem which no duchess can emulate, was asked 
if she enjoyed the ride. “ Oh ! ” she exclaimed, u I 
should be perfectly happy if I could only be on the 
sidewalk to see myself go by.” 

Let no one rail at fashion, but give thanks to the 
Great Spirit for this beneficent contrivance to accelerate 
commerce, to divert the children of men, to give them 
ever-varying employment, to conserve public and private 
morals, and to give elevation to the general standard of 
our finer emotions. 

Could we as completely trace out every evil, we 
should be equally convinced that there is not one evil in 
the world that could be abstracted, without depriving us, 
as in this case, of an indispensable agent in the produc¬ 
tion of a wide range of more than counterpoising bene¬ 
faction. 


THEATRES AND ROMANCES. 

We class novels with theatric amusements, because 
they are essentially the same. One is a fiction we read ; 
the other is a fiction dramatized for more impressive effect. 
Many people consider the theatre a great institution for 
evil, chiefly because some immoral persons attend, and 
because the performers are often wild in their lives. In 
no other public place do we consider such things matters 


90 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


of consequence. In the church, the lioteJ, the lecture- 
room, the public streets, we do not speak of such objec¬ 
tions, except where objectionable persons preponderate, 
or are too conspicuous in their parade. Even then, if 
they keep their distance, we make no account of it. Of 
a thousand persons in an average theatre, nine hundred 
and fifty are respectable : and this should suffice ; for-, 
even in our churches, there is probably an equal propor¬ 
tion of persons who are given to habits of immorality: 
and all confess in prayer that they are not entitled to 
throw the first stone at those who frequent the theatre. 

The proper inquiry is, Are theatres all evil ? have 
they any good in them ? does the good overbalance 
the evil ? Let us see. 

It has pleased the Almighty that the Drama should 
keep pace with the Church, from the beginning even to 
this day. It is therefore an institution founded and sus¬ 
tained by the same Providence. Like the Church, it 
successfully diverts men’s minds from the cares of life. 
Regarding the evils which are charged, it may retort 
upon the Church with force, that religion has been the 
parent of wickedness more reprehensible. Religious 
wars, persecutions, dogmatic animosities, hatred and 
uncharitableness, should make churchmen judge less 
harshly the lighter evils of the Drama. And it is not 
unfavorable to the theatre, if it have a fair claim to use¬ 
fulness, that, while religion has largely resorted to force 
in every form to compel its acceptance, the Drama has 
always won its way by its own merits alone. 

The Drama is, moreover, like the Church, a moral 
instructor. No play ever held public favor that does not 
make virtue triumph over vice ; and, as a matter of 


MORAL EYIL. 


91 


fact, few religious discourses impress this moral so indeli¬ 
bly as a good play. The Drama teaches by parables. 
A play is a parable enacted. It pleased our Saviour 
to adopt this system of blending entertainment with 
instruction ; and its marked success may well be studied 
by teachers who desire to follow his example. 

How beautifully the parables of the stage illustrate 
the uses of moral evil to keep society in movement, and 
to call into play the virtues and the highest aspirations 
of men ! Its aim is always to show that all the machi¬ 
nations of the wicked end in bringing out lasting good 
from evils that pass away. And ever we learn in the 
play, that the evil-doer finds corrective retribution in 
the re-action of wickedness on his own head. Without 
these avenues of evil leading to earned happiness (true 
representation of real life), how insipid would be the 
play ! Life is a stage, and we the players. To make 
our lives interesting of incident, and profitable for disci¬ 
pline, to keep alive charity and virtue, we need all the 
trials, wrongs, vexations, and collisions, winding up in 
earned happiness to the worthy, and reproof of con¬ 
science to the unworthy; and for its impressive illustra¬ 
tions the Drama is inimitable. There should be cordial 
relations between the Church and the Drama. Each 
* works in its own way to a good end ; and each has its 
multitudes that profit best by moral impressions con¬ 
veyed in his own preferred way. Who will not say 
that moral instruction through a play, a novel, or a para¬ 
ble, is not better than none ? 

We believe, if the truth were known, religion gains 
immeasurably more than it loses by the Drama and- the 
novel. While they lead none from the Church, many 


92 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


derive from them their first effective admiration of 
Christian goodness; and they enter the Church under 
this inspiration in quest of new aliment for the awak¬ 
ened appetite. We are persuaded, that, if the Church 
were to make friends with the stage, it would correct 
the evils complained of. Standing at enmity has the 
bad effect of deserting a field where it might do good. 
Then, at least, it would find that the stage, so far from 
being an enemy of the Church, would be its great co¬ 
adjutor. 

“ How shall we be amused?” Mrs. Stowe’s views 
are those of a large majority of Christian people who 
feel the necessity of a radical change in our amusements. 
We think the following thoughts are excellent: — 

“ The whole department of amusements — certainly one of the most 
important in education — has been, by the Church, made a sort of out¬ 
law’s ground, to be taken possession of and held by all sorts of spiritual 
ragamuffins; and then the faults and short-comings resulting from 
this arrangement have been held up and insisted on as reasons why no 
Christian should ever venture into it. If the Church would set herself 
to amuse her young folks, instead of discussing tloctrines and meta¬ 
physical hair-splitting, she would prove herself a true mother, and not 
a hard-visaged stepdame. Let her keep this department, so powerful, 
and so difficult to manage, in what are, morally, the strongest hands, 
instead of giving it up to the weakest. . . . 

“ Young people do not like amusements any better for the wickedness 
connected with them. The spectacle of a sweet little child singing 
hymns and repeating prayers, of a pious old Uncle Tom dying for his 
religion, has filled theatres night after night, and proved that there 
really is no need of indecent or improper plays to draw full houses. . . . 
Why should saloons and bar-rooms be made attractive by fine painting, 
choice music, flowers, and fountains, and Sunday-school rooms be four 
bare walls ? There are churches whose broad aisles represent ten and 
twenty millions of dollars, and whose sons and daughters are daily 
drawn to* circuses, operas, and theatres, because they have tastes and 
feelings (in themselves perfectly laudable and innocent), for the grati¬ 
fication of which no provision is made in any other place.” 


MORAL EVIL. 


98 


The Jesuits are the most successful instructors and 
proselyters. Their colleges are provided with theatric 
halls, and the students are the performers. The institu¬ 
tion is turned to manifest good purposes. Good principles 
are pleasantly and permanently impressed. Eloquence 
is cultivated for the future pulpit. The young mind 
gets healthy diversion, and the fathers win the affec¬ 
tions and the reverence of the young for the religion 
thus kindly presented. It is an example our Protestants 
may profit by following. 


SLANDER. 

There is a lust in man no power can tame, 

Of loudly publishing his neighbor’s shame. 

On eagle’s wings immortal scandals fly; 

While virtuous actions are oft born to die. 

HORACE. 

However we may deprecate the evil of slander, it 
springs from useful exuberance of the organ of self¬ 
esteem. 

Self-esteem needs to be extra large to sustain in 11s 
the dignity which humanity so much wants to preserve 
us from the degeneracy and debasement incident to the 
seductive vices of luxurious civilization. Running down 
hill is so facile, that a greatly disproportioned or exag¬ 
gerated force is necessary on the up-hill side, to bear 
against gravitation and momentum. 

The organ of self-esteem gets its surplus from the 
organ of causality, which becomes weakened to that ex¬ 
tent. Hence it comes that we imagine (though we may 


94 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


not confess it) that our neighbor’s character and our own 
are on opposite sides of a scale-beam: if we pull down 
his, ours goes up by the movement. No greater hal¬ 
lucination ever beclouded reason; yet no cherished 
dogma is so deeply, ineradicably, and universally rooted 
in the human brain. And if it be therefore a useful 
quality, it will show that Providence implants in us 
curious dogmatic superstitions that are designed to be 
ineradicable. 

It will not be doubted that some correcting influence 
is necessary to keep in check the errors and obliquities 
of mankind, — something to give us a hint when we get 
on the wrong track. No man sees his own obliquities : 
the halo of self-esteem makes his dark spots invisible. 

Then there remains but one way, — every man must 
perform the office of censor for his neighbor; else, every 
man minding only his own business, the world would 
sink into corruption. Crime would find neither detec¬ 
tion nor prosecution. 

In the streets of Naples you will see rows of women, 
each hunting game in the other’s head. 

This is the function of scandal. 

If we were to keep in view the unworthy motive that 
impels us, and the moral disturbance it excites, no man 
would lend himself to the agency of so odious a task, so 
loathsome a duty, especially in the higher circles wdiere 
it is most needed, — of being scandal-monger to his 
neighbors. 

The wisdom of a finished mind is manifest in the 
singular way by which this seemingly insurmountable 
difficulty is overcome by Providence. A strong appe¬ 
tite for scandal is interwoven in our very nature. A 


MORAL EVIL. 


95 


delusion is put upon us to believe it profitable. It is 
over the whole earth a passion and a fashion: and we 
all engage right heartily in the dirty work. No vulture 
snuffs the carrion with more gusto than we our neigh¬ 
bor’s faults. And where the moral elements are most 
active, as in religious communities, it receives, as it re¬ 
quires, new impulse. When our religion was Catholic, 
what shameful enormities disgraced it, because no rival 
sects existed to breathe scandal, and whisper wholesome 
reproach! 

There is a reciprocity about scandal, a system of free 
trade and exchange, which renders its distribution more 
equal than any other evil, and thus deprives it of half 
its asperity. 

“ ’Tis in a circle scandal goes its round : 

We give alternate and receive the wound. 

Established practice has ordained it thus: 

We rail at others ; others rail at us.” 

What an ingenious contrivance is scandal to give ebb 
and flood, and never-ceasing movement, to the moral 
atmosphere ! 

How the vigilant eye of our neighbor makes us cir¬ 
cumspect ! what guardians of virtue are the fear of 
scandal, and the terror of public report! With easy 
grace would unwatched virtue yield to temptation, and 
a sorry condition of society would ensue. 

So that tHe evil of scandal is, after all, of small 
account compared with the good of its conservative 
guardianship over the general morals of social com¬ 
munities. 

Human wisdom can conceive no substitute that would 


96 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


so perfectly fulfil the necessary conditions as this curi¬ 
ous contrivance. 

A passion like scandal, sustained and impelled by a 
power almost equal to the love of gold, needs all the 
force of reason, charity, and religion to keep it from 
overruning the boundaries of its necessitude. It would 
tend to give it some check, if in every house were sus¬ 
pended Shakspeare’s touching appeal to the slanderer: — 

" Good name in man or woman 
Is the immediate jewel of their souls. 

Who steals my purse, steals trash: ’tis something, — nothing. 
'Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands ; 

But he that filches from me my good name 
Robs me of that which not enricheth him, 

And makes me poor indeed. ** 

When the slanderer assails our ears with gossip, let 
us bear in mind this reliable maxim, “ Who entertains 
us with the failings of others will also amuse them with 
ours.” 

And if we may counsel thee, our brother: if thou 
dost value peace; if an approving conscience be a thing 
of value in thine eyes; if thou w’ouldst gather friends 
around thee, and keep them ; if thou wouldst have an 
angel to guard thee here, and give thee passage 
hence, — oh ! be thou resolved to follow this heavenly 
maxim, — 

When the character of thy brother is canvassed , if t,. 
hand of charity open not thy mouthy let the finger of 
silence rest upon thy lips . 


MORAL EVIL. 


97 


THE PARABLE OF THE GOOD WORD. 

Once upon a time, in a democratic country, three 
friends went out to seek their fortunes. Having no 
great talents to rely upon, they bethought them of the 
proverb u In union there is strength.” And they 
agreed, that, upon all occasions, each would speak well 
of the other. 

Arriving at a village where an election was open for 
treasurer, they began to put in practice their resolu¬ 
tion. Party-spirit ran high; and the candidates so vili¬ 
fied each other, that people feared to confide in either. 

The three friends mixed with the crowd, and noised 
about the excellent character of each other; the two 
younger especially praising the elder. This attracted 
the attention of a shrewd and influential politician. As 
often happens, it became necessary to take up some new 
man that was not objectionable to either party. 

And so our friend was brought forward, and proposed. 
“ Oh ! ” said several voices, “ that is the man we have 
heard well of.” Thus he was elected ; and his two com¬ 
panions were provided for. 

Finding the magic of harmony, and, withal, being 
charmed with the pleasant feelings that came from 
always speaking words of kindness, this became the 
habit of their*lives. 

And so it came that all men loved them; and they 
came to be governors of states, and rulers of peoples. 

7 


98 


THE GOSPEL OP GOOD AND EVIL, 


THE LONELY HEART. 

One of the most deplorable evils of civilization is the 
increasing numbers of unmated hearts. We hang on 
to life even in misery. But small value can be fairly 
set upon life without companionship of the sexes. 
Among all of God’s creatures, provision seems to be 
made for companionship of male and female, except in 
the human family. 

There is a very close relationship between the num¬ 
bers of the two sexes in the human race at birth, indi¬ 
cating the design of companionship. In proportion as 
high civilization advances, life is more secure; and 
population would probably increase too fast for the 
means of employment and support. This is the only 
reason that presents itself to account for the numbers 
that suffer desolation of heart from want of life-com¬ 
panionship between the sexes. 

We will not speak of the evil that results from the 
discouragement to marriage, which is so notable in 
Europe and in the Atlantic States of America. We 
desire to give our minds to the search for a remedy, if 
such a thing be within the ingenuity of human concep¬ 
tion. One eminent cause of the trouble is that the 
young men migrate, leaving their sisters behind; hence 
the number of women exceeds that of the men. But, 
in the same proportion exactly, men are over-plenty, 
and women scarce, in all new colonies. In propor¬ 
tion, also, as the value of woman’s labor falls where 


MORAL EVIL. 


99 


it is in excess, it rises in new countries, because it is 
scarce. 

Is it not in the power of management to adopt a sys¬ 
tem of restoration for this disturbed equilibrium ? The 
subject does not appear to have been pressed upon 
legislation in any country. Some private organizations 
have made attempts to get respectable women to Cali¬ 
fornia and elsewhere. The result has proved the pro¬ 
cess practicable, though it has not been continued, 
because of a general levity, and a disposition to make 
it a mark for wit and ridicule, on the part of the press. 
The women, also, naturally shrink from appearing to 
be on a hunt for husbands, which is the view resident 
women take' of the adventure. They treat it as an 
opposition line. There was not any difficulty about 
employment for those who cheerfully accepted what 
there was to do, waiting till better offered. And their 
advent aroused the attention of the community to the 
chances offered for selecting a partner, which resulted 
in many unions on honorable bases. Ridiculed as it 
was, it shows that it only needs some change in the 
manner of doing it, to make it available for extended 
good. 

The wit of woman surpasses the wisdom of man. 
Women (if they would take it in hand) alone are com¬ 
petent to devise a plan of acceptable delicacy to their 
lone-hearted sisters; and men would be found able and 
willing to assist the good work. At home, they have a 
remedy in their own hands ; but the instincts from Prov¬ 
idence prevent the use of it. The passion .for dress, 
the distaste for household duties, and the cost they put 
upon their maintenance, seems to be the way of Provi- 


100 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


dence to keep off the men, and to check over-popula¬ 
tion. They voluntarily barter their right to marriage 
for an equivalent gratification in the world of fashion; 
and, so far as they do this, they have their reward. 


WITH EVERY GOOD, THERE IS MORAL EVIL. 

We have never read so good a lesson as the follow¬ 
ing, from Rev. H. Ward Beecher, to illustrate the 
necessary evils of life, and the folly of searching for 
good without evil: — 

“AN EASY PLACE WANTED.” — BEECHER’S ADVICE TO 
YOUNG MEN. 

I receive letters of every complexion, but not often more pithy than 
the following; which I give verbatim, except the name : — 

Lancaster, Feb. 5, 1868. 

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 

Sir, — I hardly know how to address so great a man. You said in 
a sermon, some time ago, that honesty ought to be rewarded. Iam 
honest with my fellow-man, myself, my God. Can get recommenda¬ 
tions (the best) from lawyers, doctors, preachers, &c. Get me an easy 
(sic) situation, that honesty may be rewarded. C. C. 

To which I append my reply. 

My dear Friend, — The proper way to address a great man is the 
way in which you would address any man w r ho has good common sense. 
Never begin by telling him .he is a great man. If he is one, he proba¬ 
bly found it out before you did ; and, if he is not one, you will not be 
apt to make much by tickling his vanity by so cheap a compliment. 

Surely a man as honest as you are has been rewarded already. 
What! “ honest with your fellow-man, yourself, and your God ? ” 
There are few men that can say as much. Honest with your fellow- 
man ? Is your conduct without knots, windshakes, or cracks ? How 
long has it been so? Do your neighbors all think so? Have you 


MORAL EVIL. 


101 


come to it gradually, as the winter apple ripens? or has it always been 
so ? Excuse these questions ; for, really, I am deeply interested. You 
belong to an exceedingly small class. You have few fellows on earth. 
Indeed, when you add that you are honest with yourself, I cannot keep 
company: you are ahead of me; and when you add that clause — 
honest with your God — it takes you entirely out of my sight. Why do 
you come to me ? I ought to sit at your feet. You are my master. 

No doubt you can get “ recommendations from lawyers, doctors, 
preachers.” You place these gentlemen, doubtless, in the order of 
their honesty, ending in a climax. Lawyers are proverbially honest; 
doctors never deceive; preachers always practise what they preach. 
Recommendations from one of these would smack of self-laudation. 
Every man praises his own virtues. Get some one not so inevitably 
good to commend you. Are there no editors, no members of Congress, 
in your neighborhood ? 

But now I come to the most important part of your letter, — “ Get 
me an easy situation, that honesty may be rewarded.” I am ready to 
do all in my power for you. Had you signified the sort of easy place 
you would prefer, I should have been less perplexed. Let me see. 

How would a good farm suit you, with, say, fifty head of neat stock 
in the barns, twenty horses, one hundred head ot hogs, cribs full of 
corn, and twenty stacks of good timothy hay, besides all that the cattle 
can eat stowed away in the barn ? I propose giving you this; but, 
just now I am afraid there is some embarrassment in the business. 
The place is not easy enough. I would not, if I were you, go into 
manufacturing, nor merchandizing, nor speculation. There is too 
much agitation just now. 

I, could send you to Congress; (every thing is easy enough there!) 
but the singular honesty which you possess would make you lonesome. 
Congressmen are all, or, most all, honest, but not so honest! and you 
might find yourself an object of jealousy and envy, which would take 
from the ease of your position,— all the more, because it would bring 
you so near to the White House. 

Now, my dear fellow, that is the very place ! Your peculiar virtue of 
honesty would eminently fit you for that place. The White House has 
been often refurnished, but never with that which you would carry 
to it, with one late exception. It took a nation four years to get used 
to honesty in a president; and then, alas ! just as people began to like 
it, he and it disappeared. 

You are a born president! All parties are looking out for you. 
They want a man “ honest to his fellow-man, to himself, and to his 


102 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


God.” What a motto to run a race with ! Thus far, they seem not to 
have found just the man. If I were to divulge your name, no doubt 
you would be ravished away to Washington in spite of your screams, 
and made President of the United States. And the only reason why I 
do not disclose your whereabouts is, that I fear the presidency would 
not prove that “easy” place which you so justly think is due to your 
honesty. In fact, I believe it is a hard place. We read of many 
patient martyrs. Men have sung in the flames, and been broken on the 
wheel and rack without a groan, and have worn a heavenly countenance 
when arrows were piercing them, or stones plumping down upon them. 
And all these things might be. But shall we ever see a holy martyr 
whose faith shall sustain him in the presidential chair? Can a man be 
tormented by office-seekers, praised by parasites, teased by widow's, over¬ 
run by Congress, carved and pierced by both parties, flayed by news¬ 
papers, cajoled, deceived, and finally tormented by a cabinet who treat 
him to advice as consolatory as that which Job received by his friends, 
and yet be a saint? Can there be peace in the White House? You 
are the very man for a president; but the presidency is not the place 
for you. It is not “ easy.” 

Perhaps you would like to come to New York, and take Astor’s place, 
or Stewart’s. Let me advise you not to do it. They have riches ; but 
as yet no search has been able to find for them that rare and precious 
stone, content. Both of them have builded a good deal. But though 
they can keep out of the weather, the winter’s cold, the summer’s 
heat, and exclude light and sound and dust, as yet they have not been 
able to keep out care, sickness, sorrow, and heartache. No. I cannot 
conscientiously recommend you to become a very rich man. It is not 
“ easy ” to do, and still less “ easy ” after it is done. # 

■ Don’t be an editor if you would be “ easy.” Do not try the law. 
Avoid school-keeping. Keep out of the pulpit. Let alone all ships, 
stores, shops, and merchandise. Abhor politics. Keep away from 
lawyers. Don’t practise medicine. Be not a farmer nor a mechanic; 
neither a soldier nor a sailor. Don’t think. Don’t work. None of 
them are easy. Oh, my honest friend, you are in a very hard world ! 

I know of but one real “ easy ” place in it. That place is the grave! 

How is it in Lancaster ? Can they not serve you there ? Even 
graves are very dear about here. Try and get suited at home. 

Henry Ward Beecher. 


MORAL EVIL. 


103 


IMAGINARY EVILS. 

“ Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows ; 

Which show like grief itself, but are not so.” 

All experience proves, that, even if there were not 
exterior evils, the human mind would necessarily pro¬ 
duce imaginary evils, for the same reasons that make 
real evil a necessity, — viz., the collision and wear among 
the material organs of the brain. It is a merciful 
Providence that gives us real evils to occupy the mind; 
for no real evil can compare in horror with those of in¬ 
sane imaginings, such as come from idle luxury, dyspep¬ 
sia, and many forms of insanity. The best remedy for 
the terrible imaginings of the insane is to contrive some 
serious natural trouble. It acts on the homoeopathic 
principle, that “ like cures like ; ” and it is a sure relief. 

Miss Mary P- of Pottsville, Penn., a very esti¬ 

mable maiden lady of advanced age, being rich, and 
having nothing to do, was a prey to imaginary troubles. 
She lived alone with a servant in a fine mansion, with a 
large garden, which it was her pride to show to her 
friends. This was enclosed with board fencing. Be¬ 
sides the general practice of grumbling incident to fan¬ 
cied griefs, the lady would now and then get so unbeara¬ 
ble, that her brother, who was a practical philosopher, 
used to drop a board off the fence, and let the pigs into 
the garden. The old lady was always relieved by thus 
substituting a real for her imaginary troubles. After a 
healthful chase, and expulsion of the pigs, she emerged 
from her seclusion, made the rounds of every friend she 



104 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


knew, and did not know ; and with a refreshing power 
of eloquence, and a flush that made her young again 
and really interesting, she poured out the tale of the 
pigs in the garden. The effect of this medicinal treat¬ 
ment lasted a month, during which she could enjoy a 
joke and a hearty laugh, hitherto denied to her imagi¬ 
nary misery. 

Oh ! not in anger, but in mercy, is it ordained that in 
the sweat of the brow we shall earn our bread. Like 
other evils, studied out, it is a blessing in disguise. 

Ye that press your beds of down, 

And sleep not, see him sweating o’er his bread 
Before he eats it. ’Tis the primeval curse, 

But softened into mercy, made the pledge of 
Cheerful days, and nights without a groan. 

Cowper. 


WANT OF AN OBJECT IN LIFE. 

“ Every want that stimulates the breast 
Becomes a source of pleasure when redressed.” 

There is an increasing number of Christians, of both 
sexes, that suffer the torments of 44 nothing to do.” 
They escape the evils that are inseparable from the col¬ 
lisions of active life; but, in return, they are punished 
for inactivity repulsive to Nature, by tenfold greater 
evils of the imagination, as well as by diseases of torpi- 
fication, the most miserable of all ailments. Abernethy’s 
cure is within reach of all: 44 Live on sixpence a day, 
and earn it; ” but the patient cannot see it. 

A widow lady being left with wealth, but without 


MORAL EVIL. 


105 


family or occupation, found life insupportable. To have 
something to do, some object to live for, she under¬ 
took the care of a poor and afflicted aunt, whose infir¬ 
mities gave a world of trouble to the task ; but the 
very constancy of the occupation was a relief from the 
tedium of nothing to do. The widow had to rise early, 
and attend late; and the sufferings of her aged aunt 
were ever calling for cogitation. The care was great; 
but health was its reward. 

After the death of the invalid, there came a void, dark 
and terrible, in the widow’s life. The pastor tried to 
console her by representing the great trouble that was 
now off her hands, and for which she ought to be thank¬ 
ful. u Oh ! I do not think so,” said she. “ So long as 
I had aunty to take care of, I had an object to live for ; 
and I knew nothing of the misery I now endure from 
having nothing to do, nothing to occupy my thought. 
Aunt may have been great trouble; but my affliction 
now is far greater. I wish aunt was back again.” 

Here is a lesson to all idlers. Find some one to re¬ 
lieve, some public charity to interest you, and Heaven 
will bless you with health and happiness. 


INTOXICATION. 

Wine is as good as life to a man, if take!! moderately. What is life 
to a man without wine? (See Ecclesiasticus.) 

Come, drink the wine I have mixed; drink with a merry heart. 
(See Proverbs.) 

When we find an appetite, or a passion, or an 
instinct in man, that has been from the beginning, and 


106 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


that still is, we must accept it as part of his nature. 
That evil comes from it is no argument against its 
Providence; for man has no appetite that does not pro¬ 
duce evil by over-indulgence. There are other passions 
that are still more abused than drinking spirits; as eat¬ 
ing, and instinct of generation: but the abuse does not 
blind us to their providential necessity. 

Prophets, priests, poets, and philosophers have sung 
the praises of wine. Our Saviour says John the Baptist 
was strictly a temperance man, but that he himself was 
not. He indulged in the exhilaration of wine, and was 
called a wine-bibber by the censorious. According to 
the history which St. John records, our Saviour’s first 
miracle was the conversion of water into wine, and its 
presentation to his friends, when they were already well 
filled; and one of his last promises was to drink wine 
with his adherents in heaven. Solomon recommends 
it for what is in our day one of its apparent purposes, 
“ Give wine to the heavy heart; let him drink, forget 
his poverty, and remember his misery no more.” In 
seeking to trace out the evils of the world, and to show 
their necessity and their good, as contrasted with their 
evil effects, this most abstruse law taxes the largest 
powers of rationality. There are some peculiar exempts 
from this instinct, and this fact may give a clew to our 
investigation. 

The taste for stimulating spirits is confined almost 
entirely to the male sex; and the appetite does not come 
to that sex till the period of ripening age. It is when 
other forms of abuse begin to draw on the vitality, that 
appetite comes, and indulgence in spirits and tobacco. 
There seems to be some relationship between these two; 


MORAL EVIL. 


107 


and this is confirmed by their attaching themselves to 
the male sex. This peculiarity is no doubt the key to 
the mystery. But it is embarrassing, on account of its 
delicacy, to give its workings the ample tracings neces¬ 
sary to its full comprehension. The labors of civilized 
life that harden the muscles, stiffen the joints, and give 
decrepitude to the body, are allotted to the male sex; 
so is that mental toil that overworks and exhausts the 
brain : literary genius tends to seek recuperation from 
exhaustion of the brain by the use of stimulants. 

There is a vast consumption of spirits connected with 
political movements and their festive demonstrations, 
with war, and other institutions from which women and 
boys are excluded. 

These peculiar safeguards thrown around women and 
ungrown males seem to indicate that wine’s beneficial 
uses are for the male alone ; and probably that hard¬ 
ened muscles and indurated brains receive from wine 
a needful relaxing for effective transmission. There is 
dull and care-wearing monotony of too long and unre¬ 
lieved periods in the occupations of men. The laborer is 
harnessed to his work; and the man of business as well 
as of literature has little rest from his brain-work, 
except in sleep; and often his dreams do but renew his 
labors and his cares. 

It seems not improbable, that, in such cases, Solomon’s 
recipe saves multitudes of these classes from worse evils 
than it ‘sometimes leads to, — “ Let him drink, and re¬ 
member his misery no more.” 

Every one knows that devotion to toil of head and 
hand is against inclination to social intercourse. The 
fatigues of the day incline to rest. It is equally clear 


108 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


that wine awakens the mind to recuperated energy, 
and gives wit and sparkle where all was dull and taci¬ 
turn. The mean spirit is turned to charity and to 
deeds of heroism. This may be undervalued because 
it is the effect of excitement; but what are called reli¬ 
gious revivals administer moral stimulation for similar 
purposes of sudden conversion. 

That the use of stimulants must be endured, all legis¬ 
lators seem to agree. Every effort to prohibit their use 
proves unavailing; but there may be many ways to 
lessen their abuse if we would wisely study the subject. 
We may not stop the lightning, which has indispensa¬ 
ble uses; but we do contrive to render it as little harm¬ 
ful as possible by giving it safe diversion. This is the 
way we may mitigate the evils of intemperance. Like 
all evils, it is probable the good is widespread, and the 
evils are few in comparison. We are often deceived by 
the great show and chronicle of evil exhibitions, while 
we are blind to the good which makes no outward show. 
The intemperance of lightning (so to say) produces 
small evil compared to the general and fruitful exhilara¬ 
tion of the electric fluid, which is lightning in moderation. 
So one intoxicated person makes great display of the 
evils of spirits, while a thousand persons who in 
various ways derive benefit from wine and alcohol 
attract no observation. This reflection raises the sus¬ 
picion that the comparative good of spirits to the world 
largely predominates over the evil, as we find it to be 
in the case of all other evils we have investigated. 

O 


MORAL EVIL. 


109 


REMEDY FOR INTEMPERANCE. 

We have examined the evil of intoxicating beverages, 
that we may get some insight into the mystery of their 
being here, giving affliction, in order that we may have 
practical judgment to devise plans to mitigate the evil. 
The soul of man craves excitement, as the stomach 
craves appetite to give relish to its food. It is to its 
capacity for excitement, for elevating itself above nor¬ 
mality, that the human mind owes its great superiority. 
He who has no susceptibility to excitement is as hard 
to move as a mountain. 

Inasmuch as we cannot destroy the love of excite¬ 
ment, and as the stupefying occupations of life will seek 
relief from it as a necessary recuperation, our task 
should be not in vain efforts to stifle nature, but, by wise 
devices, to minister to this acknowledged want of 
humanity in some form that will be acceptable. 

In countries where the vine grows, it is found that 
wine becomes a general beverage in substitution for 
spirits. It is less harmful, and more useful. Where 
malt liquors are largely introduced, they tend in the 
same direction ; viz., to supply excitement with lessened 
intoxication. Wherever cheap public amusements are 
offered, we find they are accepted, and, in a great degree, 
they wean from intoxicating resorts. In the absence 
of these, and where there is much leisure, on Sunday, 
for instance, we find that intoxicating beverages obtain 
larger demand. From these facts, let us gather sugges¬ 
tions. 


110 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


The nations of the earth, with great accord, akin to 
instinct, have one day in the week to rest from labor. 
Of this day a part is given to public devotion, and a part 
to recreation, social interchange, and public amuse¬ 
ments. In England only, and in America* to which 
she gave her institutions, is the day confined by law, as 
far as possible, to rest alone; excluding recreation and all 
public amusements. It is to be seen by comparisons 
which system best subserves morality and temperance. 
It is precisely in these latter countries where intoxica¬ 
tion prevails the most. 

The ‘interest of religion is supposed to be promoted 
by these restrictive laws ; but the power of the Church 
over the conscience is not equal to that of the States of 
Europe where no such coercion is practised. We who 
seek pretext for austerity in the sabbath of Moses may, 
if we find it unprofitable, easily prove that there is no 
connection between our Sunday institution and that of 
Moses; which Christianity rejected, and, to make rejec¬ 
tion certain, chose a different day for our rest. At least 
all Christendom, except the two nations mentioned, so 
regard it. 

The Parisians are the most cheerful and social people 
in Christendom. The Sunday institution does a great 
deal to make them so. The shops of Paris are closed 
on Sunday by common desire, and without restriction 
of law, or pressure of organized effort. No churches in 
Christendom are more crowded on that day. The 
Church has till noontime to do its work; and, if it do 
it well, the time is ample. At that hour, by concert 
between the church and government, all church doors 
are closed for the day; and the priests and the people 


MORAL EVIL. 


Ill 


go forth together for recreation. In a spirit of fervid 
devotion, a reverential awe, such as is not apparent in 
our churches, the people, having heard counsel from 
above, go forth to practise what has been inspired, viz., 
kindly sociality between neighbors, and general courtesy. 

The Congress of Workingmen, Frankfort, 1868, re¬ 
solved “ to cultivate those higher tastes and amusements 
which repress all habits of debauchery.” 

In Paris, it is the careful duty of the government to 
invite all the world to recreation on Sunday. Inno¬ 
cent excitement and amusement are provided in such 
varied abundance, that every one is filled. Beautiful 
promenades, zoological gardens, menageries, ornamental 
parks, galleries of pictures, statuary, and other exhibi¬ 
tions, are thrown open free of charge of admission. 
Music enlivens the air. A thousand cheap and varied 
entertainments invite the imprisoned laborer to come 
forth and taste the innocent divertisement his nature 
craves. All the world is drawn forth by the irresistible 
attraction. A general spirit of joy and of neighborly 
affection is kindled in every bosom. The malice our 
<doomv ascetic carries in his heart into the next week 

O «/ 

melts away when parties meet in this happy mood. 
Everybody is sober; nobody can afford to lose the en¬ 
joyment by being inebriated. When thus kept, it is a 
day when one is inspired to ask and to tender forgive¬ 
ness. 

If word of mine 

Have harmed thee, rashly spoken, let the winds 
Bear all remembrance of it swift away. 

Do even as thou wilt, that this dispute 
Live not between us, a consuming fire 

Forever! Homeb. 


112 


THE GOSPEL OP GOOD AND EVIL. 


It is a day to extend communion between man and 
man ; to promote virtuous union between the sexes; to 
inspire affection, and ripen love. It is a day that drives 
dull care away, and gives sorrow to oblivion. It is a 
day to rejoice in the gift of life. It is a time to awaken 
man to the contemplation of his Creator’s works, and 
to kindle in his soul a lively sense of the indulgent 
kindness of Heaven. To the young that joyous day 
opens a paradise. Earth becomes a sunny heaven : the 
very atmosphere breathes love, and is redolent of sweet 
odors. 

Move among the crowded multitudes, that thus, light 
of heart, orderly and gracefully trip in innocence and 
harmony under the smiles of He'aven, and you may see, 
that, where wise men legislate, the curse of intoxicating 
debauchery, born of fanatical bigotry, finds no place in 
the dark catalogue of social evils. Is it not a super¬ 
stition without fair foundation, that God is pleased with 
the sacrifice of our little pleasures, the refusal of his 
proffered blessings ? It is, perhaps, wiser to believe, 
that, when Heaven offers gifts, it is religion to enjoy 
them, distrust and ingratitude to refuse them. What 
is wanted, is, as in France, to get the Church to see 
that it is the interest of religion to consider the people’s 
equal necessity for recreation as for devotional exercises 
on Sunday ; to be convinced of two things, — viz., that 
one service is better than two to do the allotted work 
of the Church in a day, if it be well done ; that recre¬ 
ation which is not vicious would repress intoxication 
that goes against the Church, and promote social inter¬ 
course, which helps to bring people into religious organ¬ 
izations, and gives them taste for moral instruction. The 


MORAL EVIL. 


113 


ministers of religion equally require recreation, and 
opportunity to mingle with the people when in their 
most courteous mood for profiting by words of softened 
gravity, aptly spoken as social converse offers occasion. 

There may be other ways of weaning men from in¬ 
temperance. This way has the advantage of proved 
success. We are quite sure that we shall not be 
relieved (as we may be) from the excesses’ of intem¬ 
perance, till we give it some such diversion as we have 
indicated. 


IS DRUNKENNESS A DISEASE? 

From the insane persistence of drunkards, and the 
known power of habit over the faculties, medical men 
have been inclined to consider habitual drunkenness a 
disease. Hospitals for inebriates are institutions grow¬ 
ing up under this conviction. Dr. Parish of Delaware 
County, Pennsylvania, in a lecture on habit and its laws, 
made some remarks worthy of consideration. 

The doctor maintained that drunkenness is a disease, 
and that its victims can no more help it than they can 
help an attack of the cholera, yellow-fever, or consump¬ 
tion. This disease may be hereditary; may be planted by 
the mother in administering remedies to her infant, &c. 

A great error of the d&y is the manner in which the 
disease of intemperance is treated. 

It has become the very bad habit to denounce it as 
a crime, to rate it among the vices; and, consequently, 
its unfortunate victims are cut off from the care and 
sympathy they deserve and stand so much in need of, 


114 THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

and are looked on only as meriting punishment for 
their crime. This is all wrong. When the great pub¬ 
lic, when temperance-reformers, look upon drunken¬ 
ness in its proper light; when the same provision is 
made for its thirty thousand victims in Pennsylvania 
that is made for the blind, the crazy, or the poor; when 
the drunkard is taken by the hand, encouraged, sympa¬ 
thized with, and made to feel that he is suffering with 
a disease, and is not a criminal in the eyes of the moral 
world, an important step will be taken in the true path¬ 
way to temperance reform. 


WAR. 

“ Warriors all! 

The word is vengeance ! Death’s coal-black pall 
Be now our standard ! Be our torch the glare 
Of cities fired; our fifes, the shrieks that fill the air ! ” 

Man is one of the links in the chain of life, which 
embraces all animals: he is necessarily amenable to the 
general law to which all animals, his co-tenants of the 
earth, are subject. Warfare is an instinct that belongs 
to the primary organizations of all animals. A very 
large proportion of all animals, birds; insects, and all 
fishes, get their living by it. Deprived of this destruc¬ 
tive faculty, nine-tenths of all life would perish on the 
earth. As the world is constituted, death is a necessary 
means of life; and, by analogy, it may appear that war 
is equally a necessity to the life of nations. When the 
baby is yet under the sole guidance of Providence, ere 
instinct has ripened into reason, it fights for the breast: 


MORAL EVIL. 


115 


even before its hands can be used, it fights lustily with 
its tongue ; it screams its belligerence. 

Combativeness in animals is an instinct ever active 
when its exciting cause is not hunger, but when, as in 
man, it comes from other motives. The working-bees 
and the drones, the red ants and the black, dog against 
dog, the sword-fish and the whale, are examples. 

From the bountiful provision for multiplying life, 
the earth would soon be overcrowded beyond the means 
of sustenance, were all men and animals permitted to 
live until mature age. Of all forms of death, starvation 
is the most terrible ; and war is the only form in which 
it is made attractive. For this needful pruning, the 
Great Spirit sends us disease, pestilence, and famine, in 
which the fight is all one-sided: men and animals are 
slaughtered by a power invisible, against which there 
is no resistance. War is providential pestilence, every 
way more acceptable. It is a fair fight: men are on 
their feet. It is a game of equal stratagem, and some¬ 
thing like equal forces. Patriotism, military fervor, 
glory, and promotion animate and sustain the combat¬ 
ants. Like all games of hazard, the excitement becomes 
pleasant. The soldier complains of idly marching 
around, and prays for another battle and carnage. 
Glory may be what some say, “ dying for your country, 
and having your name spelt wrong in the newspapers ; ” 
and wounds may pain : but glory is a talisman of mighty 
power, and wounds are the warrior’s glory, and his 
pride in all after-life. 

If we reconcile ourselves to the necessity of death 
as an institution inherent in the animal organization, we 
must look upon war. as one of its instruments, by no 


116 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


means the most objectionable, if it be not, in fact, the 
most merciful. 

“ How sleep the brave, who sink to rest 
By all their country’s wishes blest! ” 

Nations, like men , are born to die. In their youth, 
they conquer room for expanding life by wars* of aggres¬ 
sion. The earth is all under claim; and, if the young 
nation is to expand in growing, it must displace some 
potentate to get the necessary room. The history of 
Israel proclaims that this process- was directly command¬ 
ed by God himself; but its necessity, under the instinct 
of self-preservation, is shown in the exodus from 
Great Britain, and her wars against far-away aboriginal 
tribes: she was compelled to displace to make room 
for her own over-production of population. Nations, 
like the men who are their elemental atoms, must keep 
on growing. The day they stop, they begin to go down¬ 
ward ; accumulated success brings organic abuses, fat, 
internal diseases, intoxication of power, and consump¬ 
tion ; vagabonds multiply like boils and cancers, sapping 
the health of the body natural, and threatening revolu¬ 
tion. It is well-established history, that many of the 
most destructive wars have had their origin in national 
necessity. To give diversion to internal discontent, to 
thin out vagabonds and agitators, a foreign war is under¬ 
taken, and the nation is saved from internal disruption. 
When the time has come, that, in the natural order of 
rotation, the nation must go into dissolution, Providence 
sends down upon it some new power, which, in turn, 
demands room for life ; and war again is the only means, 
alike of death to remove the old, and of birth to make 


MORAL EVIL. 


117 


way for the new, nation. This has been, is now, and 
ever will be, the rotation of life among nations as among 
individuals. 

War, therefore, is a necessary institution, and we 
must reconcile ourselves to its appointment. 


MURDER. 

Murder is the offspring of war. War is murder on a 
large scale. If the larger evil be a necessity, the lesser 
form of that evil, is, of consequence, the same. The 
spirit that moves men to murderous encounter in public 
war could not exist and be kept alive, without, at times, 
being exercised, by extremes of provocation, on private 
account. Happily, private murder is the rarest of all 
crimes; and it may be considered in the light of such 
casual aberration from a straight line as makes the ex¬ 
ception of all general rules. We have reason to be 
thankful for the proof its rarity gives, that the worst 
form of crime bears so small proportion in the catalogue 
of the evils that afflict humanity. 


























































































4 


















* 


* 




































PART THIRD. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OP GOOD AND EVIL. 






































♦ 





















/ 










RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


RELIGION A HUMAN NECESSITY. 

Religion is an inborn instinct of the mind for its 
own preservation. If there be any thing which persistent 
existence from the earliest records proves to be a neces¬ 
sity to mankind it is religion. Every people, however 
rude and ignorant in general, has been supplied with 
this element; and what is greatly in proof that it comes 
from one general, and not from special revelations, is 
that each and every religion has precisely the same ele¬ 
ments. The moral maxims are in nearly identical words 
in all religions ; the aim and purpose are alike. The 
purposes may be briefly stated, viz.: — 

1st, u To sanctify some legend about the origin ot man 
on the earth, that a question which puts a dangerous 
strain on the mind shall be put out of the way.” 

2d, “ That the nature of Deity, still more beyond the 
reach of man’s mental capacity, shall be represented 
after a fashion that will be accepted, and bring rest on 
that subject.” 

8d, “That there shall be some power to which men 
bow submissive, and feel some accountability.” 

4th, “ That they shall believe in the dispensation of 

rewards for good, and punishments for evil.” 

121 



122 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


5th, “ That there shall be a law of morality which 
men will believe was specially given only for their pri¬ 
vileged use ; all others being impostures.’’ 

6th, “ That this moral law shall have, in proof of its 
heavenly origin, miracles said to have been expressly 
done for this people and this religion; and that all 
miracles claimed for all other religions are sacrilegious, 
and without truth.” 

7th, “ That there shall be prophets, who foretell what 
is to come with such general and indefinite expression 
as to admit easy adaptation and fulfillment.” 

8tli, “ That the elements of every religion shall be 
so arranged as to conform to the physical law of con¬ 
stant variation and movement among its particles ; that 
religion shall be capable of great versatility of interpre¬ 
tation, so as to divide men into contending sects ; and, 
when one set of dogmas wears out the general interest, 
a new sect can be derived from ingenuity of interpreta¬ 
tion, and new interest and re-animated discussion can 
be aroused.” 

9th, “ That, when this resource fails, interest flags, 
people grow indifferent; the instinct of religion craves 
new aliment, a reformer rises, and a new religion super¬ 
venes. 

10th, “ One of the laws most strongly marked as 
stringently exercised by. all religions is intolerance of 
investigation. Christianity is not an exception. Of a 
hundred publishing-houses, ninety-five will refuse to 
print any investigation of our dogmas, lest they lose the 
profitable custom of the Church. If our church really 
believes our dogmas to be pure gold, as distinguished 
from heathen dogmas, which are but brass burnished 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 123 


into sham lustre, it should be her pride to invite the test 
of aqua regia from all investigation. But the Church 
of Christ, unlike its founder, trembles, as do all other 
religions, at the mention of investigation. The Church 
should not complain if this mistrust breed widespread 
infidelity, and if this universal unbelief bring about 
the consequences of the ninth law aforesaid. 

Here are the leading laws of the constituent elements 
of religion, as we find it among all the nations of the 
earth. 

11th, There is another law, u That what is best 
administered is best.” All having the same moral law, 
in various dressing of comparatively immaterial narra¬ 
tive, so to say, any one, and all alike, would furnish to 
the pulpit of any or every other equal moral value and 
general application if the preacher would dress it to the 
taste or digestion of the congregation. 

Whether we quote from Moses and the prophets, 
Confucius and his commentators, Brahma and his apos¬ 
tles, Buddha and his Puranas, the Bible of Zoroaster, 
the papyri of Egypt, the sages of Greece and Rome 
innumerable, the Gospels of Jesus, the Koran of Moham¬ 
med, the Book of Mormon, even the plays of Shak- 
speare, and a thousand romances we can pick from the 
shelves (so plentifully has God scattered his moral seed 
over the world), give but fair interpretation, and power 
of eloquence, and there will be found in all direct and 
derived instruction to lead map through paths of holiness 
to the gate of heaven, and to the bosom of the impar¬ 
tial Father, who gives to all his children equal access 
to his heavenly presence. 


124 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


PROVIDENCE IN ALL RELIGIONS. 

“ The religion of Nature is everywhere the same. The same moral 
light is diffused among all peoples. The moral law is therefore the same 
everywhere, and must continue unaltered in all time. The virtuous 
obey it in all countries, and the vicious disobey it. It is the law of one 
common God enacted for all his children.” — Cicero de Repub., B. 3 ; 
ex Lactant, lib. 6, eh. 8. 

We are taught by Christian instruction two things as 
of essential faith : — 

1st, That our religion alone was revealed of Heaven, 
and that all others make false pretension to revelation, 
and are in fact false. 

2d, That the religion of Moses was once alone true, as 
is ours now ; but that, while it answered for the people 
of that age, the progress of the world eighteen hundred 
years ago found it no longer suited to the improved 
intelligence of the new era; on which account a new 
religion was given to mankind in substitution of the old. 
We are desired to believe that this reason for a new 
religion is applicable only to this single case, and to that 
particular period ; and not that it exemplifies a general 
law of growth, decay, and change in all religions, so 
long as similar causes perform the same circuits of 
change. 

In the creation of man, Providence has supplied every 
provision for the natural wants of every people in the 
various climates. These provisions differ in form; but 
they all contain, and yield by digestion, exactly the same 
elements, in varying proportion, as best suited to the 
nourishment of the bodv wherever it has its home, — 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 125 


° x yg en , hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, lime, phosphorus, 
sulphur, &c. It could not be otherwise ; for the purpose 
is for all mankind alike, — to supply blood, flesh, bones, 
brain, and so forth. Some form of government, having 
also a common purpose, has been put into their heads ; 
certain laws for adjudicating disputes ; certain rules of 
etiquette to govern the intercourse between the court 
and the people, and for the conservation of propriety in 
social intercourse: in short, every want of man as a 
social being, however rude his condition, is manifestly 
provided for. Shall we say there is an exception to this 
law ? that while we confess religion is requisite, and we 
find that they all have it provided, it is not of God, but 
of — whom ? 

It endangers our own valuation to say it is their own 
unrevealed invention; for, as we have said (and we 
propose to adduce exact proofs), there is not one moral 
of our religion that is not in theirs : and we scarcely 
care to match their common sense against our miracu¬ 
lous revelation. 

If religion be a necessity of human life, it must be 
supplied as well as other necessities, or it would conflict 
with all ideas of an impartial Providence. As this 
dogma of the necessity of making all other religions 
false that ours may be true is productive of much un¬ 
charity, and is a serious obstacle to Christian unity, and 
to our success in converting the heathen (as we call 
them) to our formalities, it commends itself to the 
review of every pious mind. 

Is it not an over-zealous and over-jealous estimate of 
our own religion that makes us vilify our neighbor’s? 
Is it not the same false reasoning that sustains private 


126 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


scandal, viz., that, in proportion as vve blacken our neigh¬ 
bors, we bleach ourselves ? Let him who would win the 
esteem of men, and gain open ears for his words, speak 
only the good he knows, and he will always find good 
in every thing to fill the measure of his speech. So, let 
him who would win a hearing for his religion, gene¬ 
rously, kindly, and wisely admit the excellences he 
can not fail to find in everybody’s religion if he seeks for 
them. He will find that men catch the mood of loveli¬ 
ness more quickly than its opposite ; and that if he can 
show them something superior, either in doctrines or in 
social polity, they will be in the best temper to accept 
the conversion. 


SECTARIAN DISSENSIONS. 

Under the law which requires collision to sustain life 
and movement, religion is provided with disturbing 
agitators, in the form of sectarian controversies. The 
day we all agree, religion, no longer fanned, will cease 
to give flame, enthusiasm will die out, and indifference 
will destroy its power of doing good. In exhaustless 
elements of dogmatic change, to keep creating variations 
of doctrine necessary to its continued vitality, Christian¬ 
ity is not behind other religions claiming special reve¬ 
lation. The body of Jesus was scarce cold before this 
inherent principle was manifest. Thomas was not the 
only doubter. Peter was for the old law, and Paul was 
against him. Barnabas quarreled with Paul about 
doctrine. Paul had no confidence in, and no com¬ 
panionship with, the apostles who were appointed by 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 127 


Jesus himself. Christianity was, at the very start, thus 
broken up into sectarian subdivisions. It is the popular 
belief that all their doings were under inspiration of God. 
This implies a confession that sectarian controversy was 
a contrivance for a good purpose. 

Certainly it proves that dogmas may come and go, 
and be quarreled about with asperity, and the religion 
itself live and prevail, with a fair assumption that its 
progress was stimulated by this means, as the best for 
the purpose. A passing horse gives speed to the caval¬ 
cade. It may be, and probably it is, for the purpose 
of making dogmatic inventions easy, that the gospel of 
Christianity is given to us by four historians, with in¬ 
cidental variations, instead of in one concentrated and 
fixed authority, which might have been a bar to useful 
contention. 


INDIFFERENCE AND INFIDELITY. 

We accept sectarian divisions as wholesome promoters 
of activity in all religions, and of safeguards against 
corruption and tyranny; but we also recognize the 
necessity for some check upon its tendency to break up 
religious communities into subdivisions, so numerous, 
that sufficient talent can not be afforded, and that the 
funds necessary to other attractions are too muoli 
diffused when concentration is imperative. In recog¬ 
nizing the necessity of religion as a bond of union in 
society, conserving its morals, and preserving it from 
the many influences that tend to weaken its ties, we 
also, discern that this power would be increased by 


128 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


greater concentration and harmony than prevail in 
Protestant Christianity. 

That the Church is much in need of . such concentra¬ 
tion of power at this time is what we propose to show. 
The great and growing prevalence of infidelity is not its 
worst enemy. Indifference is still more hostile to its 
interest. Infidelity listens and argues, while indiffer¬ 
ence shuts its ears, and turns its back. When infidelity 
is active, it gives life to religion ; indifference brings tor¬ 
por and death. To find remedies for evils, we must 
study the causes that produce them. Nothing promotes 
infidelity so much as imposing upon credulity beyond 
endurance: the less of dogmatic religion we insist upon, 
the fewer will be the unbelievers. Can we reduce the 
number of insisted dogmas without taking any thing 
from essential Christianity ? Is it a right or a duty to 
disturb ancient landmarks, if they become stumbling- 
blocks, and if they no longer serve any useful purpose ? 
Can we suggest any means that will give to the Church 
new power to respond to the calls of this age of great 
exaction ? 


RELIGIOUS DOGMAS. 

Dogmas are the menstruum through which the 
essential morals of religion obtain diffusion, as the 
atmosphere is the means of diffusing the light and heat 
of the sun. The atmosphere has its variations; but 
sunshine is ever the same. So the dogmas vary with 
the age, without changing the great moral light of 
Christendom. All dogmas are of human contrivance. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OE GOOD AND EVIL. 129 


What is a dogma ? It means a learned improvement 
on the obscurity of Scripture. It is expressly some¬ 
thing that is not revealed by those who were instructed 
by inspiration of God. It is supplemental revelation 
by inspiration of theological subtlety. The Trinity is, 
for example, a human invention of a score of very 
ancient heathen theologies. Athanasius, an ingenious 
divine, three hundred years after the death of Jesus, 
conceived the heathen idea to be likewise deducible 
from expressions culled from our Scriptures. After- 
long and bitter contention, its advocates succeeded in 
getting it placed, by a council of the Church, on a par 
with divine revelation. If, at that period of general 
ignorance, a new dogma of this importance could prop¬ 
erly be added to Christianity, why is it improper that 
we also, in the superior light of this age, may not 
search for new interpretations ? No doubt all dogmas 
that offend reason and provoke unbelief in this age of 
light and general education were suited to the believing 
capacity of their time: all the more should we feel it 
incumbent upon us, after the example set, to look for 
ourselves with the greater light given us, and the more 
exacting believing capacity of the age. Dogmas are 
alike useful, whether true or not, if people believe 
them. But, when the intelligence of the age is offended 
by any dogma, it is.a hint from Providence that it needs 
reviewing; for it fails of its purpose, and is instead an 
obstacle in the path of religious propagation. Dogmas 
are made for religion; not religion for the dogmas. 
The general teachings of the Gospels, their moral 
instructions, all that is consequential to virtue, are plain¬ 
ly enough expressed; and Christians are not divided 


130 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


in respect to them. Wliat we differ about would be no 
loss to personal Christianity if it were all blotted out 
to be heard of no more. Men could and would be 
quite as good without the dogmas of any church, with¬ 
out the ceremonies, and without the institution of 
preaching, if they would, of their own accord, give their 
minds to the study, and their hearts to the practice, of 
Christian precepts ; which may be all contained in a 
single page of an ordinary book. 

But, absorbed in worldly affairs, it is not in man to do 
this: therefore, religion necessarily takes the form of 
an organized institution, whose business it is to wrap up 
the terse maxims of religion in such dogmatic formu- 
laries, ceremonials, and church-rules of discipline, as 
shall invest them with an interest, and a power of 
active diffusion, which, without these aids, would be sim¬ 
ple philosophy, to be admired when rehearsed; and that 
is all. The light and heat of the sun would be nothing 
to this world if it were not for the atmosphere, with its 
warring clouds, which give them modification and diffu¬ 
sion adapted to our vision, and to the geographical 
peculiarities of the various parts of the earth. That 
any one set of dogmas, and any single form of organiza¬ 
tion, could be contrived to suit the wise differences of 
mental organization among men, is not to be expected. 
It is wisely ordained, that, by dividing us into many sec¬ 
taries, mutual watchfulness may guard us from corrup¬ 
tion. 

This vigilance occasions angry contentions; but it is 
a small evil set against a greater. By the rivalry 
engendered, the religious spirit is kept active; and as 
each and all of the sectaries have the same essential 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 131 


truths of Christianity mantled in the various forms of 
drapery, about the fashion of which only each stoutly 
contends for preference, the cause of religion is in every 
way served to the greatest advantage. 

Protestants and Catholics mutually see each the cor¬ 
ruptions and absurdities of the other ; and this kind 
office every religious sectary does for the rest, — it sees 
every one’s errors but its own. So we see the weak 
points of Mohammedans, Parsees, Buddhists, and Con- 
fucians, and they return complimentary raillery at ours. 
It is only the impartial eye of devotional philosophy 
that sees in all defects of kindred varieties, and in each 
and all much larger counterbalance of good. 


THE NEWSPAPER. 

No power of modern times can compare with the 
daily newspaper, the weeklies, and the monthlies, for 
directing and molding public sentiment. As education 
becomes general, these instructors multiply, and their 
scope enlarges. Evils also multiply with the sharpen¬ 
ing of wit and its competitive consequences. Means 
of repression by ordinary ecclesiastic methods seem quite 
inadequate, since there are newspapers of particular kind 
devoted to making crime heroic and popular by attract¬ 
ive style and pictorial illustration. The circulation of 
such incentives to evil is immense, and the eagerness to 
read them is extraordinary. This growing tendency is 
seen in the popular value given to spicy articles in all 
our secular newspapers, investing vicious recitals with a 


132 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


relish. Shall we erect no counter bar to this tendency 
adequate to correct it, or to repress the fearful increase 
of vice that it engenders ? 

It is eminently the duty of the Church to stem this 
torrent by new construction, and new motive-power and 
means of application. If means devised in olden time, 
and competent then, are now unquestionably inadequate, 
can we safely incline to adopt new methods ? Is it any 
disrespect to the devices which they of former ages 
found suitable to the wants of their time, to shape them 
for the altered necessities of a new and advanced age ? 
Rather do we show respect, when we do as they did in 
suiting means to their existing wants. Certainly we show 
more faith and more appreciation of our religion, when 
we find it is an everlasting fountain, from which every 
age and every people, by seeking, may be sure to find 
fresh revelation and effective guidance suited to every 
age as it advances in progression ; so that our religion 
grows never out of use, but ever increases in new use¬ 
fulness, in proof of its divine origin. 

If we neglect to do this, the instinct of self-preserva¬ 
tion urged by the inspiration of universal education, and 
by daily appeals through the press, will compel men, 
after the fashion of temperance societies, to seek for 
more practical remedies ; and this always acts as a defec¬ 
tion from the Church, which is to be deplored. 


BELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 133 


THE INSTINCT OF PROGRESS. 

Is it the interest of the Church to lag behind in the 
great progressive movement of the age? Veneration 
for ancient authorities grows weaker : in every depart¬ 
ment, the call is for investigation and modern proof. In 
mechanics, in science, in philosophy, in commerce of 
nations, in the constitutions of governments, none is 
content with the things that satisfied our forefathers. 
For what purpose has education been universally dif¬ 
fused, and a higher order of intelligence inaugurated ? 
Can it be conceived that the superior minds of this age 
of light will wade backwards to the dark ages, and take 
their inferior light for guidance, exchange our jets of 
gas for their lamps of oil, our locomotive engines for 
their pack-panniers! Is it to be supposed that our reli¬ 
gion can be allowed to stay anchored to dogmas engen¬ 
dered mostly by cloistered anchorites and metaphysical 
abstractions of dark and gloomy minds? We are not 
suggesting departure from the words of our Saviour ; 
but a review of inferential dogmas, which, under the 
superior light God has given us, may, with his inspira¬ 
tion, reveal to us new interpretations more acceptable to 
the rationality of the age. It may give us new centers 
of concentration ; something that will obtain more gen¬ 
eral belief, and quicken the activity of religious move¬ 
ment responsively to the march of general progress, 
and win men alike from indifference and infidelity. 
These are prominent evils of the times : our task is to 
offer suggestions for their abatement; and it is in hum- 


134 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


ble deference we make them. The evils we here speak 
of are properly within the province of the Church ; but 
we are quite aware of the objections it will offer. 
Where it sees danger, we see safety and needful regen¬ 
eration. 


THE PULPIT. 

Is the pulpit keeping pace with the progress of all 
other institutions ? Excessive production and close com¬ 
petition, the expense of commercial adventure, and the 
great engrossment of men in all their several pursuits, 
make them exacting towards every thing that asks with¬ 
drawal of attention from business-. 

Education makes critics. To be effective as a preacher 
of the gospel, it is almost imperative that the pulpit 
be not inferior to the audience. If it be superior, its 
power of doing good is lightened. The popular 
preacher is he who appeals with force to the hearts of 
men ; who addresses himself to the daily life of his 
hearers, and. gives th'em practical counsel in that direc¬ 
tion. Dogmatic preaching or explanation of texts falls 
on dull ears. Reading cold, unimpassioned essays is 
not the preaching that touches the chords of sympathy. 
Conceive a suitor reading off his love, however he may 
feign devotion, and you have a fair comparison between 
reading an appeal to a Christian, and making it with all 
the magnetism of the fervid inspiration of new-born 
words and living gestures. 

We know it is untasteful to refer back to Scripture 
either our dogmas or our rooted convictions of whatever 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 135 


kind ; but, if the example of Jesus and his apostles be 
of any value as exemplars of what preaching ought to 
be, it may be asked, Why drop the better for the worse 
method ? If the lecture-system better serves to awaken 
religious impression, it is right; but, if Christianity 
suffers torpor and retardation by the substitution, it 
cannot be defended, neither by reference to Scripture, 
nor to the cause of Christianity, nor to the duty we 
owe to God and man to use the best means and the 
.highest power for the promotion of effective religion. 


HOW TO FILL OUR CHURCHES. 

Poets come from birth, not from education ; so do 
preachers. It is idle to put upon the people the sin of 
empty pews and tardy contribution, and to make hard 
Sunday-laws to drive them into church. Bless the 
Lord, and pardon the unjust aspersion ! The people are 
always good enough to crowd every church in Christen¬ 
dom with eager steps, if the Church would’do its part 
fairly before God. Does Mr. Spurgeon complain ? 
Does Mr. Beecher upbraid ? Did Wesley or Starr King 
have cause to charge the people with not coming to hear 
the word of God? Never ! And why? Because they 
were made preachers of the Word by inspiration of 
God, and were not dependent on the education of the¬ 
ologies. 

To meet the educated masses that are expected to 
face the pulpit in the generation now ripening, some 
changes are called for in preparing the coming preach- 


136 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


ers for the pulpit, or the pews will be emptier than 
before. Providence provides in abundance both genius 
and elocution. To the seminaries of theology is con¬ 
fided the selection : if they falsely choose, the sin of 
empty benches lies at their own door and that of the 
church that creates them. Desire of parents to have a 
son in the ministry should be of no account. Inborn 
qualifications should alone decide the question ; and, if 
the urgent need of natural talent to attract the educated 
masses be admitted, this counsel will be heeded. It is, 
moreover, desirable that the coming preacher shall speak 
extempore. He must be well instructed in science, 
that he may enrich and impress his sermon by apt illus¬ 
tration ; and he should be well exercised in the use of 
parables, of which, in the light literature of the day, 
there is a rich and varied supply. This was the Saviour’s 
system: the closer we follow it, the greater will be our 
success. Here is a remedy which can not fail to cure 
the evil of religious indifference. 

A man may think he is called by God to preach ; but, 
if the people have not a corresponding call to hear him, 
his claim should be negatived. Compulsory-Sabbath- 
laws are tariffs to protect poor preaching. Were lib¬ 
erty not infringed, and were people left free to go to 
church or to play, the Church would be compelled to 
employ higher talent. This would, by its own attrac¬ 
tion, crowd the churches, awaken religious interest, and 
advance the now dormant progress of Christianity. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 137 


SIN. 

Sin is intentional evil. If evil be a necessary law 
to the evolvement of good, sin, which is but a classifi¬ 
cation of the principle, must be an institution we can 
not destroy. What we have to study is the best means 
of keeping it in bounds. The instinct of'self-defense 
compels us to resist it all we can. This resistance con¬ 
stitutes our life, and calls into activity all the highest 
exercise of virtue and discipline. 

To deal wisely with sin, we must study well its 
characteristics. If there must be sin, there must be 
men to do it, and influences to impel to it. We shall 
learn charity toward criminals if we trace out the 
many influences that impel them. It needs much study 
of the providence of evil as a l$w, to give us reasonable 
judgment on the popular doctrines regarding the retri¬ 
bution of sin hereafter. 

From the unsophisticated speech of the unlearned 
we often derive puzzling thoughts, and hints profitable 
for reflection. 

An old colored woman was smoking a pipe when she 
was accosted by Deacon Goodrich, “Aunty, do you 
think you are a Christian ? ” 

“ Yes, Brudder Goodrich, I speck I am. n 

“ Aunty, do you believe in the Bible ? ” 

“ Yes, brudder, I bleeve the Scripters; though I can’t 
read ’em, as you can.” 

“ Aunty, do you know there is a passage in the 
Scriptures which declares that nothing unclean shall in¬ 
herit the kingdom of heaven ? ” 


138 


THE GOSPEL OE GOOD AND EVIL. 


“ Yes, Brudder Goodrich, I have heard tell of it.” 

“ Aunty, do you believe it ? ” 

“Yes, Brudder Goodrich, I bleeve it.” 

“ Well, Aunty, you smoke ; and you can not enter the 
kingdom of heaven, because there is nothing so un¬ 
clean as the breath of a smoker. What do you say to 
that ? ” 

“ Why, Brudder Goodrich, I speck to leave my breff 
behind me when I go to heaven.” 


SINFUL INFLUENCES, CONGENITAL AND 
NATIONAL. 

“ There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, 

Rough-hew them as we will.” 

In general terms, we say that every man is alike free 
to do good or evil, and all are equally responsible ; but, 
when we look into the multitudinous causes which con>- 
trol our actions, we are inclined to make kindly excep¬ 
tions and allowances. 

We find certain proclivities born in .men, and we 
trace them from generation to generation in the same 
family. We speak of the Bourbons and the Hapsburgs, 
for instance, as stereotyped characters for a long line 
of successive descendants. We say we do not like such 
and such a family: it is bad stock. “ Once a rogue, 
always a rogue,” is another intimation of this kind. So 
much like mere machines, set to go only one possible 
way, do detectives look upon rogues, that, when a rob¬ 
bery occurs, they at once suspect certain fellows whose 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 139 


set way is indicated by the style of the robbery. And 
just as rats are born with instinct for getting into our 
cheeseboxes, so thieves and other marauders form cer¬ 
tain groups to which nearly all these offenses are con¬ 
fined ; and they are as unchangeably fixed in this course 
as marauding rats. 

Gov. Kennedy of West Australia reports (1862), 
as the result of six years’ experience with convicts, that 
rascality is evidently an innate disease, exactly as any 
congenital disease of the body. He looks upon all 
theories for moral cure as illusory; and he confines 
himself to studying. means of lessening their evil im¬ 
pulses. The most effectual he finds in restricted diet. 

The tender part of all bad fellows is the stomach. 
They always have keen and hungry maws. Vegetable 
diet, not in full response to their demands, he has proved 
to have great submissive influence, and to leave them 
less stomach for a wicked undertaking. 

An eminent English magistrate remarks, that, in ex¬ 
amining the criminal records of the police of London, 
he was struck with the persistent recurrence of the same 
names, and often connected with crimes of the same 
character, from generation to generation, from periods 
very remote; as if the poor fellows were born to be 
criminals. One cannot contemplate those testimonies 
without inclining to suspect that much crime comes from 
congenital misorganization of the brain that rules the 
moral faculties. 

National characteristics show us how all men are 
irrevocably bound down by certain peculiar moral forces, 
which give fixed character to individuals, quite beyond 
their control. The levity of the French, the treachery 


140 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


of the Spaniard, the vindictiveness of the Italian, the 
sharp-trading of the Yankee and the Yorkshireman, 
the obstinacy of the Scotch, &c., are proverbial; by 
which we infer that there are certain organizations 
necessarily peculiar to each country and climate, which 
rule the individuals, so far, at least, that each is con¬ 
strained to act so that the acts of the people, looked at 
as a whole, shall present the summary of the national 
character. That is, if you choose, the individual is 
furnished with certain peculiarities of disposition, and is 
surrounded by such controlling circumstances, that he 
is necessarily pleased to do thus and so. 

Pickpockets abound in London and New York, but 
are unknown in Paris and San Francisco, where cir¬ 
cumstances do not favor that species of industry. 
Nationality and sexuality determine in a great measure 
the tendency to suicide, and to the manner of it, — by 
drowning, by pistol, by knife, by poison, by noxious gas, 
or by precipitation from a high tower, which is a Pari¬ 
sian fashion. 

In any given case, we say an Englishman would do 
thus, a Frenchman so, an American this way, a Spaniard 
that way. We prefer German to Irish servants, &c.; 
meaning that there is in every people certain fixed and 
compulsory proclivities, by which their actions can be 
foreknown. In fact, the world universally treats man’s 
mind as a machine whose excellence is proved by its 
mechanical inflexibility. We require of a man that he 
shall never change his views. If he does, he is incon¬ 
sistent, unreliable. Were there not that fixity which 
mechanical structure gives to the brain, there would be 
no reliability between man and man, between one na¬ 
tion and another. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 141 


It becomes a necessity of social organization that men 
shall have fixed characteristics. That these character¬ 
istics differ in men according to the constitution of their 
brain, and the peculiar temperaments given by Nature, 
is too clear to admit of question. 

When we consider these things, we can scarcely avoid 
suspecting that much of moral evil is due to causes in 
which human agency plays a secondary part. And, 
when we mark the persistency of men and families in 
certain obliquities that bring them no reasonable return 
of good, our hearts may well incline to mingle pity with 
our condemnation. 


RETRIBUTION OF NATIONAL SINS AND WHOLE¬ 
SALE INIQUITY. 

Nothing is more obvious in the study of the laws of 
Nature than this, “The law for the whole is the law for 
the parts ” of which the whole is composed. 

There are national sins most terrible in enormity, — 
murders, robberies, devastation of wars, and tyranni¬ 
cal oppression. There are atrocities by excited popular 
fury and by religious persecutions. In all these sins, 
men are the instruments of transgression ; but it is by 
wholesale, and not by retail, that we are forced to judge 
them, — the government, the church, the mob, &c. 

It is not pretended that the soldiers who battle for 
their country are individually answerable at the judg¬ 
ment for the murders of war. So far as they are 
concerned, we pronounce their action justifiable. But 
murder has been done, say, by the government; and if 


142 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


sin must be retributed in the next world, there is this 
difficulty, — governments have corporate souls that never 
leave the earth. They can not be punished; nor can the 
law of retribution for sin be executed, either in whole or 
in part, unless it be done here, while the corporate soul is 
in its corporate body. That the sins of nations bring 
their own retribution is conceded; that this retribution is 
adjusted here is proof that retribution of sin can be and is 
completed in this world: and, as the law for the whole 
is necessarily the law for the particles composing the 
whole, may it not be assumed as probable, if not as cer¬ 
tain, that our theory of retribution postponed till after 
death is untenable? There is a curious feature in our 
belief of eternal damnation. When we examine it, we 
find, that, however stoutly we may maintain it as a gen¬ 
eral theory, no man nor woman living has ever yet 
been able to conceive a wife, a husband, a father, 
mother, son, daughter, sister, brother, however bad in 
fife, actually in the flames of hell, under torment ever¬ 
lasting. Truly would life be made insupportable to 
mankind if such a belief could be practically enter¬ 
tained. It is the extravagant disproportion of the in¬ 
fliction to the transient obliquities of life, that deprives 
it of our hearty acceptation ; and hence we enter a plea 
for its modification. 

For any good purpose to be effected by postponement 
of retribution to a far-off period after death we look to 
human reason in vain. The nearer the retribution to 
the crime, the greater its effect of restraint and correc¬ 
tion. This is a maxim of all jurisprudence. The far¬ 
ther apart the cause and effect, the more attenuated the 
cords that connect them ; till the evils to be corrected, 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 143 


and the society they concerned, having long passed 
away, the application comes too late for redress. 

Like a cataplasm after death, it can neither cure the 
evil, nor save the patient. 

It is popular belief that the soul was created pure ; 
that it is, so to say, the breath of God; that virtue is 
rewarded, and vice punished for ever, after this life, 
except so much of both as may have been nullified 
here by balancing one against the other ; that there 
are only two places hereafter, one for the reward of 
the virtuous, and another for the eternal punishment 
of the wicked. This plan presents an insuperable diffi¬ 
culty : it provides no place for children, and for those 
whose accounts are evenly balanced. From the multi¬ 
tude of imbeciles and u nobodies” in the world, this 
must be a class exceeding in numbers the other two 
combined. 

Sin is a product of mortality, as the body is that 
brings it. forth. How can imagination invest it with 
immortality ? If the body at death is necessarily 
detached from the soul, because the soul can not be 
longer held, by reason of its immortality, sin also must 
relax its hold, and stay behind. But is sin mortal ? 
Every day we are told so. It is destructible by repent¬ 
ance, by atonement, by virtue, by forgiveness. Surely 
what is so entirely mortal can not go into immortality ; 
nor can we conceive of Deity’s changing its nature, and 
investing it with immortality to perpetuate a nuisance. 

The theory is, that, because temporal sin offends the 
Deity, he makes it everlasting, and perpetuates the 
offense. There is a way to be rid of it here; but he 
prefers to nurse it hereafter. Human reason can not 


144 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


see iii this any service to the Almighty; none certainly 
to the soul which it does not reform, and restore to 
purity, as God provides in every other known instance 
that bears analogy. Every enlarged view reveals the 
purpose of turning evil into good, in contradiction to the 
charge, that, what he created good, he allows to run in 
everlasting evil. 


THE PARABLE OF THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS. 

HELL AND HEAVEN. 

“ The Almighty Maker, thus throughout, 

Discriminates each from each by strokes 
And touches of his hand, with so much wit 
Diversified, that twO were never found 
Twins at all points.” 

From this parable, as generally interpreted, we get 
the idea, that, at some far-off day, all the souls of men 
which have ever been born on this planet (and we must 
suppose on all our sister planets who revolve around the 
same physical sun, and which therefore have the same 
moral central luminary) will be reclothed in the bodies 
they liad at the moment of death; and then will come 
the final judgment. 

Then will a line of division be drawn, which will 
separate the good from the bad; the former being 
rewarded by everlasting happiness, the latter by never- 
ending torment. 

Let us analyze this proposition, and we shall find, that, 
by God’s own pre-existing laws, the thing is impossible, 
even to Omnipotence. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 145 

Essay a physical division into the tall and the short, 
the strong and the weak, the old and the young, the 
healthy and the unhealthy, the wise and the unwise. 
After those which are well marked have been parted 
from each extreme end, there will remain the larger 
number, in whom the distinguishing requisites are so 
blended, that they can not be classed on either side. 
Take, for instance, the old and the young. Wherever 
you draw the line, you will have on each side of it men 
who differ from each other by but a minute, a second, 
a moment, of time; so that one can not be classed as 
old, and another young. There will be a middle-aged 
class, most numerous of all, which, being neither young 
nor old, can not be made to answer the conditions. 

The moral man is in this respect exactly like the 
physical. By such microscopic shades do men differ in 
moral value, that, in a multitude of even a thousand 
millions now on the earth, no penal line can be'drawn 
which would not necessarily separate men on opposite 
sides whose difference as to good and bad would be 
infinitesimal, and utterly inappreciable. 

Let us begin at either end, or at any point. For 
instance, we will take the best man (if it be possible to 
find one exclusively entitled to that designation), and 
send him to heaven as a reward for his virtue. The 
next best man can differ from the first by a shade so 
inappreciable, that he goes in, of course; and so the 
third, the fourth, and so on to the end of the list, if 
there be ten million of worlds full. Not one can be 
admitted without involving the necessity of admitting 
the next, and thence on to the end. 

Take the other end, and put the first in hell as a 


146 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


sinner; the next is a sinner extremely like him, and 
so on, for all are sinners : and thus, one by one, we 
must all go to hell! You can not stop at any point, 
without having consigned to hell one man while you 
hold in your other hand a brother-man the exact moral 
image of the last, differing from him by so slight a 
shade, that, without manifest injustice, you can not make 
a different disposition of him. To exalt this one to 
heaven, while the other one is cast into hell* as the just 
reward of the vices of the one, and of the virtues of the 
other, is a proposition not to be entertained. 

If there be any doctrine upon which the finger of 
God has stamped the word “ impossible,’’ it is this 
division of his poor, weak, and helpless children return¬ 
ing to their Father’s home for rest, after the toils and 
sorrows of life, into two distinct classes; and that he 
will cast out the greater number from his presence, and 
consign them to torments never to end. “ Mercy, is 
thy star-written name but a blot in heaven ? ” 

The extravagance of this doctrine makes it of no 
effect in the repression of vice ; and, like laws which are 
not enforced, it would be wise to abolish it. 

“ Return good for evil ” is announced as the law of 
heaven. “ Be merciful, as your Father is merciful.” 
“ Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.” 

Can we believe that these blessed maxims will ever 
cease to be heaven’s law ? the brightest jewel in the 
crown of Jehovah for ever and ever? 

The Church tried in vain to suppress intemperance by 
threats of Gehenna in a long hereafter. The temper¬ 
ance-society found success by preaching a more effective 
doctrine, viz., by showing that intemperance is its own 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 147 


retributor here, and that temperance is more profitable 
here and immediately. 

Let us extend this approved doctrine. It has proved 
its superiority in the repression of one vicious habit: 
pray, why shall we not try it in others ? So much of 
all moral evil is induced by similar want of intelligent 
conception of its unprofitableness, that a system which 
is found to succeed in ameliorating one may be trusted 
as remedial of all others. 


PURGATORY. 

The invention of purgatory was doubtless suggested 
by the difficulties of extreme separation ; but if there 
were ten thousand, or as many millions, of hells and 
heavens, and double that number of purgatories, it would 
not overcome the impossibilities. Besides this, there 
would still be wanted some place for that vast crowd of 
men and women whose lives are neutral, or balanced 
of good and evil, meriting no reward, and no punish- 
ment, of the sort provided by these theories. Children, 
imbeciles, fanatics, diseased minds, misguided innocents, 
would call for particular quarters. 

It is a fact, that, while there is no extended belief in 
hell, the belief in purgatory among its sectarian reli¬ 
gionists is very widely diffused because of its more 
reasonable pretensions. It is a place, like hell and 
heaven, in some undefined part of space ; not in any 
of the stars we see, for each star is a sun, having full 
occupation in attending to its own planets, but some¬ 
where farthe r off, or invisible, if nearer. There sinners 


148 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


are sent to finish their purgation from venial sins unre¬ 
quited here. They may be got out, however, by their 
living friends, through penitential masses performed at 
the altar through the clergy. 

This doctrine is profitable to the Church, and the 
people get full value in comforting assurances for the 
cost of the consolation. 

The courts of Paris in 1861 furnish us with evidence, 
that, while the Church does so much good, it is at times, 
like ourselves, led into temptation ; and it should never 
be entirely without some lay supervision. 

The Church of “ Les petits Peres,” we think it is 
called (back of Rue de la Banque), is supposed to be 
under the particular patronage of the Virgin Mary; 
and masses performed at its altars for redemption of 
souls in purgatory are understood to be taken to her 
Son in heaven direct, and to have preference of all 
others in time, as well as in certainty of procuring the 
desired release. 

A case was brought to trial by a gentleman who 
suspected that the masses he paid for to get his brother 
out of purgatory had never been performed. The fol¬ 
lowing facts were proved, viz., as many as thirty thou¬ 
sand purgatorial masses a year were paid for to this 
Church, at so much each. It was not possible to per¬ 
form a tithe of them at its altar; but it seemed sinful 
for the Church to refuse the money, which might do so 
much good. By interpretation it was decided, after the 
fashion of too many interpreters, that masses done at 
any other Church, by request of this favorite of the 
Virgin’s, would be considered by her all the same. But, 
after exhausting every resort of this kind, there still 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 149 


remained thousands unperformed ; for most of the priests 
are fully occupied by similar home-orders for masses. 

M. Yidil, a devout bookseller, being applied to, offered 
to relieve the Church and* its conscience, by undertaking 
to have all its masses performed. He took the job at a 
franc a mass. He opened out correspondence with 
every country cure in France, and let out as many 
masses as he could, paying in books. Still there re¬ 
mained a great number unaccomplished. He had a 
special “ purgatorial department,” with books of record. 
It was proved, that, to balance the mass-accounts, the 
bookkeeper would alter, for instance, thirty-five masses 
to three hundred and thirty-five ; and so on. Though 
this was published in the newspapers, the effect was 
of short duration. The faithful soon resumed the 
offering of masses as before. “Well,” said a lady, 
“I have done my duty; and, even if the masses 
are not said, the Virgin knows my sincerity, and 
will help my sister out of purgatory.” Nothing 
better illustrates the power of faith to give comfort. 
It is only for this purpose that we present the narra¬ 
tive. 

THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IS SELF-REGULATING: 
IS MAN AN EXCEPTION? 

The physical world, the whole universe, reveals to us 
a perfect system of self-regulating machinery. Every 
movement diverges from and sins against the orthodox 
formularies of mathematical circuits. One force drives 
the planet forward, a contending force resists, and keeps 
the first force within bounds prescribed. It is an 


150 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


eternal war of forces. It is life. There is no life on 
any other conditions ; nor can there be. The universe 
owes its stability, its eternity, to its being a self-regulat¬ 
ing, self-correcting piece of machinery. Nations are 
governed by the same law of ever-erring circuit. 
Their rise and fall are proved by all history to be repe¬ 
titions of the same law of error, of self-correction as it 
goes along, of dissolution and regeneration. Man, in 
his body, follows exactly the same law which his mother- 
earth does. Every transgression brings its own retribu¬ 
tion. The overtasked organ suffers its penalty. Thus 
all things on earth and in the universe, and man him¬ 
self, physically considered, correct their aberrations as 
they go along. It is the highest proof of perfection. 
But it is attempted to be shown that the same man, 
metaphysically considered, is not in every respect sub¬ 
ject to the law of self-regulation. No reason can be 
given why the machinery of the moral world should not 
correct its own aberrations as it goes along; but there 
are obvious reasons why this universal law is particularly 
requisite for the moral world. The more complex the 
movements, the greater the liability to derangement, the 
more self-regulation is necessary. Self-regulation is 
the test of perfection; and it is not to be supposed that 
the moral is less perfect than the physical. The two are 
so intermixed that the cross-action of law at variance 
becomes an impossibility: in fact, we have proof that 
body and mind suffer, even-paced together. The 
drunken debauch which prostrates the body prostrates 
the mind; and with the after-headache comes the stool 
of repentance, shame, and anguish of soul. If in such 
instances they are clearly co-sufferers, the doctrine of 
exception must be withdrawn. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 151 


GOOD AND EVIL WEIGHED IN THE SCALES. 

The great prominence given to crime by journalists, 
by moral lecturers, and by social appetite for scandal, 
induces a suspicion that the proportion of sin in the 
world is greatly overstated. To give fair judgment, we 
should have an equal force occupied as earnestly in 
chronicling the daily, the hourly, the momently offices 
of virtue, of charity, mutual kindness, private and pub¬ 
lic beneficence, devotedness and self-denial, which, like 
the dew of heaven, keep moist the moral earth, and 
bless it evermore. Prisons may be filled; but hospitals 
much more, and public charities. Cruel men there are, 
but kind hearts and good Samaritans ten to one, nay, 
ten times ten (blessed be the Lord !) ever ready to aid 
the needy, and comfort the heavy of heart. 

The self-sacrifices of women to their children, of 
friends over the couch of sickness ; the words of sympa¬ 
thy which even malefactors call forth because of their 
tribulation ; the tears of pity, an ever-living spring that 
flows for the widow and the orphan, for the broken 
spirit and the wayward course of erring kindred ; the 
universal sympathy for suffering in all its forms,—do 
not these virtues far, and very far, outweigh all the sins 
and peccadilloes of thoughtless and misguided men; 
leaving, as in every other department of Nature, a large 
preponderance of good over evil ? The vices are but 
undercurrents that are lost in the vast overflowings of 
virtue. 

May \ye not hope, that, when sin has accomplished its 


152 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


purpose of necessary discipline, its function, like the 
smart of a rod, ceases, and it is no more ? that God 
permits it only so long as it serves his purpose, but 
never allows it to thwart his purpose, nor to destroy a 
soul he once created from his own breath, and blessed it, 
and bade it go forth and multiply ? that as we came 
pure, like the rain from heaven, so, too, as the rain, 
when soiled of earth, returns by providential design back 
in purity to the skies whence it came, leaving its soil of 
earth behind, may not our souls under this general law 
of purgation, so clearly demonstrated, be returned self- 
cleansed and pure to the bosom of our Father and our 
God ? Compared with the impractical and incompre¬ 
hensible scheme of theology for giving transient evil 
perpetuity, how God-like is this moral circuit! How 
perfectly it resembles all other circuits in the movements 
of the universe; turning all partial evil into universal 
good, and proclaiming to the children of men the great 
truth, that over all there presides and rules a God whose 
wisdom and benevolence are boundless and everlasting! 


WHAT WAS MAN MADE FOR? 

“ The struggling tides of life, that seem 
In shiftless, aimless course to tend, 

Are eddies of the mighty stream 
Tjiat rolls to its predestined end.” 

Till we comprehend something of the purpose of our 
creation, we shall be led by metaphysics into all manner 
of misconceptions in relation tq the Creator and to the 
law of retribution. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 153 


Nothing is so unfounded in probability as the notion 
that man was a special creation, that be was made for 
his own sake, and that all things else were made for his 
convenience. Creation is certainly a chain of connected 
and interdependent links. There is a common law for 
all; and upon its fixed and permanent character the 
mutual security of all depends, — suns by millions, 
planets by tens of millions, covered with living organ¬ 
isms, all evidently working out some joint purpose. 

The scale is vast beyond conception. Whatever the 
purpose of this amazing machinery, man is but a micro¬ 
scopic wheel working in harmony with the rest. When 
we say man violates the laws of God, we scarcely con¬ 
sider the import of our words. The laws of God are 
the laws of the universe. Not one can be broken with¬ 
out parting the connection that holds creation together. 
Man is harnessed, like the rest, to his work. Whatever 
his allotted part, he has to do it in harmony with the 
grand plan. Whatever the purpose of the Creator, it 
cannot be frustrated: the ends designed are surely 
accomplished. 

If these premises be correct, man’s free agency has 
small latitude. What appears to be his choice must be 
under the compulsion of irresistible motives and influ¬ 
ences, which keep him in his orbit. This dependence is 
better observed and more forcibly proved when we ad¬ 
mit that the career of nations has its destined circuit. 
Men are the machinery. If the nation has its allotted 
purpose, men must so work as to serve that purpose. 
Men are, therefore, the instruments of Providence, 
working as a united mechanism, and not as each an in- 
dividual and free-working artisan ; for no plan could be 


154 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


carried out that way. They are working not for any 
thing personal to themselves, but solely for some object 
in the plan of Providence. 

The design of Providence being accomplished in per¬ 
fection, whatever good and evil may have transpired 
seems to be balanced by the justification of the means 
that worked out a perfect ending. It lends probability 
to the assumption that the machinery regulates and cor¬ 
rects its own aberrations as it goes along; and thus it is 
in condition to begin a new round of usefulness in the 
next world. If man is to live hereafter,' he must be 
moving. He cannot lie idling till a day of final judg¬ 
ment : he must be ever working for some useful end. 

It is the law of universal life. Nothing is made in vain. 
If man were placed in .torment such as theory teaches, 
his usefulness would be at an end ; a contingency that 
is against universal law, and therefore not to be enter¬ 
tained. We say every thing was created for good. This . 
would furnish answer to the inquiry, What was man 
made for ? and it is a denial of the allegation that his 
end, or any thing’s end, can be evil. 


THE SOUL. 

“ Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: 

The soul that rises in us, our life’s star, 

Has had elsewhere its setting, 

And eometh from afar.” 

There are two theories of the nature of the human 
soul, which have been disputed by learned theologians 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 155 


for centuries. By some, the mind and the soul are con¬ 
sidered synonymous terms ; by others, the soul is not 
the reasoning power, but some spiritual creation apart 
from the mind, which is the reasoning faculty. There 
would be no advocates for the latter, if the former 
theory did not cast a doubt on the immortality of the 
soul; because, otherwise, the former theory answers to 
all the phenomena, while the latter has nothing to sus¬ 
tain it but speculation. Newton says, u We must admit 
no more causes than are necessary to explain appear¬ 
ances.” Were it admitted that the soul is not the rea¬ 
soning organ, it can not know-good from evil; nor can 
we hold it to be capable of sin, or of accountability, if 
it have no reason. 

The brain is the material machinery from the de¬ 
structive distillation of which proceeds all thought. 
Whether virtuous or vicious, wise or unwise, the same 
weight of brain-matter is expended in its production. 

Anatomy finds no difference in the quality of brain- 
matter in good and bad men ; but phrenology does find 
that the mind, the disposition, and the character of man, 
are determined by the form and relative arrangement of 
the matter of the brain. It is the predominance of 
some organs over others that causes men to have fixed 
characters, by which we can safely prophesy how such 
a one would act under given circumstances. 

The natural disposition of men, like their natural 
talent for music, mechanical skill, and the like, is inherit¬ 
ed from the parents, and is transmitted from generation 
to generation, with the physiognomy and phrenology 
that are its external signs. We know that parents 
transmit to their children sanguine, nervous, bilious, 


156 THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

impulsive, obstinate temperaments. Generosity, intel¬ 
lect, amiability, piousness, credulity, superstition, con¬ 
scientiousness, sociality, pugnacity, timidity, roguishness, 
and all other qualities of kindred nature that go to make 
up men’s characters, descend from parents to children. 

But these temperaments, these attributes and disposi¬ 
tions* are the very properties by which we know one 
soul from another. Without these, there is no soul. 
This seems to compel the conclusion that soul or mind is 
transmitted from father to son. Without this admission, 
the soul of Adam can not be said to have transmitted its 
sin to the souls of his descendants. Is man’s soul, then, 
not immortal? The question is not affected by the 
condition of transmissibility, which is rather in proof 
that the soul never dies; .since part, at least, of the soul 
of the parents is shown to live in their children. If 
any part lives on, all parts live; for the elemental law 
for the parts is the law for the whole. How the soul 
can live out of the law that makes a material body ne¬ 
cessary to its usefulness, to its very life, sustenance, and 
servitude in this world, is what our dim reason can not 
conceive. Nor can any one imagine how a simple spirit 
can do any thing, without some material machinery to 
work at its bidding. The soul of music is powerless in 
many a man for want of fit material organs to give it 
expression. He can dream of song and harp, he may 
hear and judge of music ; but he can give no sign, 
nor turn it to account. The grand demonstrations of 
Almighty Power in the universe come through material 
suns and planets, and material growth everywhere doing 
his service. And we can not conceive of man’s spirit 
being useful without similar associations. The finest 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 157 


conceptions of soul die for want of means to put them 
in execution. 

u God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, 
.and man became a living soul,” is a poetical way of 
saying that the first air inspired causes man to become 
a living soul; and it is proof, that, at the time it was 
written, the theory was, that the soul is not a something 
ready-made, and inserted in the body at birth, but that 
it comes from, or is generated by, the action of the air 
upon the bodily organs. When this conjunction oc¬ 
curred, the man became a living soul. The idea seems 
to be that a live body is necessary to constitute a 
living soul; that without the body, and the process of 
life in it, there would not have been a living soul; and 
that a living soul includes the whole man bodily. 

From this we gather that they believed soul to be 
an element that requires material organs to give it per¬ 
sonality, and living force and effect. Our doctrine of 
the resurrection of the body is an indorsement of these 
primitive views. The Egyptians before Moses had the 
same idea ; but, knowing the insuperable difficulty of 
reconstructing the identical body after all its elements 
were merged in the general ocean of air from which 
they came, the Egyptians preserved the body, so as to 
have a nucleus at least of identity, by which every 
returning soul would know its own incasement. Our 
theology is vague in this matter. There is to be a gen¬ 
eral resurrection of all the bodies of men and infants 
that ever lived, at some indefinite period, when there 
will be a general judgment and final disposition. This 
appears to be the plan of weak, human conception. 
Its clumsiness marks it an imposition upon credulity. 


158 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


What becomes of the souls of this multitude between 
death and resurrection is not satisfactorily stated. The 
Egyptians held the only consistent theory, viz., that 
souls return to the ocean of spirit-element whence they 
came, and the resurrected body is again made a living 
soul by inspiring the element in purity as it did before ; 
thus bringing the process within the operation of a 
general law, instead of a special Providence for each 
case, which is repugnant to reason and to all known 
laws of the universe. 

We may not be able to reconcile these suggestions 
with popular conceptions; but we feel the most confid¬ 
ing trust in Providence, that, however concealed from 
us the plan, the soul is immortal and indestructible ; 
and that, after its pilgrimage here, its sleep will be short 
before it is assigned to a new personal investment, and 
to new work in new fields of usefulness. 

“ It must be so, Plato : thou reasonest well. 

'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us; 

’Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, 

And intimates eternity to man.” 


AN OBJECTION. 

A computation has been made, showing, that, if all 
the bodies that lived on the earth were brought back by 
resurrection, not only would there be no standing-room, 
but if the surplus, after covering sea and land, were to 
be placed on the heads of those below, and piled up to 
the moon, there would be scant room for the multi¬ 
tude. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 159 

If resurrection of tlie body be the law, it must apply 
to our companion planets; and all space in this solar 
system, and in all others, would be packed with bodies 
of flesh having organs not adapted to any life but that 
of the planet for which they were expressly made. 


A TWIN SOUL. 

“ So we grew together, 

Like to a double cherry, seeming parted.” 

Chang and Eng (personally known to us) are a pair 
of Siamese male twins, many years resident in Wilkes 
County, North Carolina, United States of America. 
They were at first exhibited at Peal’s Museum in New 
York. 

They bought a farm, which they now occupy; and 
they had slaves to work it. 

They are united inseparably by an elastic band of 
flesh, about the size of a woman’s wrist, just below the 
breast-bone. This band is about four inches long, and 
has an elastic play of perhaps two inches. It estab¬ 
lishes a perfect interchange of arterial blood between 
them ; so that the blood of one is equally the blood of 
the other. The result of this exhibits in a marked 
manner its benevolent uses under Providence. As the 
two are inseparably bound, it would be most awkward 
and distressing if discordant feelings or tastes should 
arise. Now, this interchange of blood has the effect of 
making the two literally of one mind and of one soul. 
What the one likes* and dislikes, so exactly the other. 


160 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


When one hungers or thirsts, the other also. The 
calls of Nature are to each simultaneous. In sickness 
and in health, in joy and in sorrow, they are one. One 
may not be irritated without the other, and at the same 
moment. Their thoughts run ever in the same chan¬ 
nel, and their dispositions are alike. When asked a 
question, the inclination is to answer together; on which 
occasions, their answers are always of the same purport, 
and but little different in phrase. One, however, proba¬ 
bly inheriting from the mother, is a trifle quicker of 
tongue; and generally he is the talking partner. A 
case has occurred to show, that, when fighting is to be 
done, they pitch in lustily together. If sin is com¬ 
mitted, it is clearly a partnership affair. The sin may 
be but a single affair: so it must be charged in undivid¬ 
ed halves. The last thing that may strike you is that 
these inseparables could ever marry; but they have 
been married for many years, and have many children. 
Their wives are sisters, American women. 

They fall asleep together, and wake together; and 
what one does, so the other. None so virtuous as 
they; for one can not get into mischief without the 
other being about to gaze. 

They will die together in mutual embrace. This is 
a case in which the expression has meaning, “ My 
brother and I are one.” 

Psychologists behold here a twin soul, entirely bound 
by physical circumstances, to be in passion and in good 
and evil together; and showdng more certainly than in 
any other instance that these are determined by the 
blood and the structural organs. Spiritualistic casuists 
may find curious exercise of thought in dealing w ith 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 1G1 


them at the judgment. Their inconvenient twin-bond 
would have to accompany them; and, should they be 
awarded differently, what a puzzle! or, should their 
twinship of soul necessitate a unity of award, then, 
again, the compulsion gives perplexing reflections. 


IMMORTALITY. 

" All forms that perish other forms supply : 

By turns we catch the vital breath, and die. 

Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, 

They rise, they break, and to that sea return. 

He who studies Nature finds immortality is the uni¬ 
versal law\ Nothing is destructible. Every thing 
changes its form; but none of its elements lose their 
life. Death is a dissolution of elements from one asso¬ 
ciation, that they may enter into other combinations. 

Immortality means ever living: not created to-day, 
and thereafter living always, but ever living, — before 
to-day as after to-day. 

That the universe was ever a vacancy with nothing 
in it is inconceivable. Creation has reference to forms, 
not to the elements of which the forms are made up. 
Regarding the original elements that fill all space, we 
are obliged, because of their indestructibility, to assume 
them to be like Deity, without beginning, and to leave 
it as incomprehensible to human intellect. 

If all things be immortal, we need not discuss the 
immortality of the human soul. 

It may be that the spirit of man, in being released 
11 


162 THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

from its bondage of earth, may need some disintegration 
for its restoration to purity, under that most beautiful, 
self-cleansing law elsewhere universal, before it is sup¬ 
plied with a new form suited to the new condition of 
life elsewhere, and for which its former shape would be 
all unfitted. Its companion the body is certainly so 
cleansed, and restored to new uses. 

As distinguished from theologic conceptions, this plan 
seems better to accord with the universal law of making 
evil temporary, and good eternal; and its benevolence, 
as well as its seeming wisdom in making all things end 
well, commends it to us as giving higher conceptions of 
the paternal relationship between the Great Spirit and 
the children of his creation. 

“ To have the power to forgive 
Is empire and prerogative; 

And it is in crowns a nobler gem 
To grant a pardon than condemn.” 


THE INDIAN’S FAITH IN HEREAFTER. 

In common with other heathens generally, the 
Indian is a firm believer in the immortality of the soul. 
The idea seems to have come from the inspiration of 
Nature. He thinks that heaven has fine ranges of 
forest, and splendid game for the huntsman. His pro¬ 
verbial contempt of death is supposed to be on this 
account; but he endures any amount of torture without 
wincing, believing that the Great Spirit admires forti¬ 
tude. He is of all the world most scrupulous of his 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 163 


promise, his dignity, and his honor. The following, 
from an eye-witness, will illustrate this : — 

At a settlement of Cherokee Indians, twenty-five 
miles from Van Buren, in Arkansas, an Indian named 
Nat was tried by his own tribe for murder, and sen¬ 
tenced to be hanged. The whole tribe assembled ; and 
the sheriff, with Nat alongside, led the way along the 
bank of the Arkansas, in quest of a suitable tree. 
After a long search, one was found,—a fine cotton¬ 
wood, with a branch standing out almost horizontally. 

“ What do you think of that-, Nat ? ” 

“ Can’t find a better.” 

Before being executed, Nat said he would like to 
take his last swim in the river, which was at once 
allowed. He divested himself of his blanket, and in a 
moment was luxuriating in the cooling waters. The 
tribe, seated on the bank, took a general smoke of the 
pipe ; and Nat, when satisfied, returned, adjusted his 
blanket, and presented himself, ready to submit to the 
course of the law. There was no guard. The Indian’s 
honor is his guard. 

The sheriff ordered him to climb the tree, which he 
did like a squirrel. The officer followed with the rope, 
and soon adjusted it, — the noose on the neck, the end to 
the branch. “ Now, Nat, I am going down. When I 
say, ‘ Jump,’ you spring of.” — “ Agreed.” As soon as 
he reached the ground, he called, “Jump, Nat;” and 
Nat sprang off. 

The fall was so great that death was instantaneous. 

Ever so the Indian meets the summons of death, 
looking forward to a happy immortality. 


164 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


THE DEVIL. 

The intimate relationship of all religions is shown in 
this, that there is no religion without a Devil. There 
is a singular uniformity, a perfect identity, in the attri¬ 
butes and functions assigned to him by every religion 
of the world. Our own may be taken as representing 
the belief of nearly all religions. But the Persians, 
and several others who have preceded us in getting 
the Trinity revealed to them, have given the omni¬ 
present Devil the third place in the Godhead of three 
in one, — the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer. 

Zoroaster taught that a time will come when all evil 
will become good, even the Devil and his angels. 
Then the empire of the good spirit will prevail, and con¬ 
tinue for ever. (Rotteck.) 

Goodrich found the Devil in every religion in Africa, 
and always his color is white ! 

Most of the ancient philosophers speak of the popu¬ 
lar Devil as an imaginary being, which all religions find 
it necessary to hold in terror over the vulgar. They 
say that superior minds do not require it, because they 
understand that evil deeds bring their own retribution ; 
and this is sufficient restraint. 

The Buddhists hold that the Devil is working out a 
purpose that is temporary ; and that all evil purges it¬ 
self : “ Can the dust of earth rise, and defile the beauty 
of the sky ? ” 

Hindoo philosophers say, that, to terrify the multitude 
who want understanding, a personal Devil is indispen¬ 
sable. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 165 


SATAN TRACED IN HISTORY. 

“ High ’mid the rolling clouds darkly broods 
The Adversary. Wide his sight extends 
Upon the peopled earth beneath him, stretched 
In multitudinous contention.” 

As Satan is the popular father of evil among Chris¬ 
tians, we have to speak of him. Let us take a rapid 
review of the history of this curious beino; according 
to Christian records, and we shall find ourselves in a 
maze of bewilderment. 

The first we hear of the Evil Spirit is in the history 
of creation itself, where he appears as a pre-existent, 
uncreated being, exercising a predominant power oyer 
the children of God. 

While God rested from his labor, satisfied that every 
thing was good and secure, Satan, who was present 
listening to God’s first commandment, watching his 
opportunity, won over Adam and Eve to his service. 
He seems to have distinguished consideration, and an 
hnmunity from punishment; for God curses only the 
innocent serpent-race, whose form he assumed. The 
history of the deluge informs us that the Devil had 
been so successful in his battle against God, that he had 
won over to his side the whole vast multitude of God’s 
children, except one family of eight persons ; and he 
made God grieve in his heart that he had ever made 
man at all. Here, again, not an irreverent word is 
breathed towards his Satanic Majesty. The Almighty 
seems to confess himself beaten in a fair game. Instead 


166 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


of attempting to destroy the mischief-maker, he re¬ 
sorted to the terrible expedient of destroying all his 
adherents and their innocent children, and every beast, 
bird, and reptile of the earth, and make a new start at 
creation, in hopes, apparently, of succeeding better in 
the second effort. 

The Evil Spirit was not drowned; but, as if refreshed 
by the bath, he went to work with new vigor, and kept 
uppermost in his struggle with God, till the time of 
Christ, when God tried another scheme, of an opposite 
character, to defeat the machinations and the superior 
power of Satan. 

As Satan took the shape of a serpent, and successfully 
beguiled mankind from Adam to Christ, God now took 
the shape of a man, condescending to go through the 
natural formularies of conception, childhood, and thirty 
years of preparation for one year’s preaching to win 
back the people the Devil had got all to himself as be¬ 
fore. At two personal interviews between the Majes¬ 
ties of the opposing realms, Christ treated Satan with 
the courtesy of a fair belligerent. They journeyed 
together to Jerusalem, and afterwards to a prospect sum¬ 
mit ; the Devil leading Christ as a master would his 
guest. On these occasions, they measured wits, and 
quoted Scripture with equal felicity. Satan spoke of his 
great power over the earth, and offered to transfer it to 
Christ on certain terms. There was no denying that 
he had the power he claimed ; for it was to get it away 
from him that Jesus came. But Jesus declined acced¬ 
ing to the terms of sale. Mark says the companionship 
lasted forty days. -There does not appear to have been 
any effort by Jesus to convert Satan. It was all the 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 1G7 


other way: it was Satan tempting Jesus. Finally, 
they parted without any apparent breach of courtesy, 
but simply without a concordat. 

The most extraordinary thing in the history of the 
Devil, in his connection with Christianity, is that he 
should be one of the first to proclaim Jesus aloud and 
openly to be the Christ, the Son of God ; while Jesus 
himself desired him not to speak of it (Luke iv. 41 ; 
Mark i. 24). He appears again helping to spread this 
truth (Luke viii. 28; Mark v. 7 ; Matt. viii. 29). It 
seems incredible that “ the father of lies ” should be 
selected for the proclamation of the truth. 

Again : Satan asked a favor, which Jesus politely 
granted, allowing him to enter the bodies of two thou¬ 
sand swine, and drown them. Finally Jesus was killed 
expressly to redeem mankind from the thraldom of 
Satan, in a way that there might be no mistake. Well, 
after over eighteen hundred years of experience, and 
all the efforts of organized churches and priesthoods, 
what has been the success this time ? Is the Devil 
dead? No. Has his power been diminished? No. 
Has any one devilish wickedness been removed ? or are 
men in any way an iota less sinful ? Not a particle : it 
is all the other way. 

And what is the position of Satan in the Church to¬ 
day? Suppose this master-spirit of evil were suddenly 
destroyed, would the news be received as glad tidings by 
the pulpit ? or would theology complain of the disturb¬ 
ance of a time-honored doctrine ? 

When we deny to all other people God-given religions, 
we know not what terrible conclusions are enforced by 
logical deduction. If Satan inspired Confucius and 


168 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


Brahma, Buddha, Zoroaster, and Mohammed, he is 
the first and real father of the same truths as Chris¬ 
tianity has been much tardier in proclaiming. We put 
him in advance of God, even in religious care for man¬ 
kind. By declaring all other religions false, and not of 
God, we charge that God has from the beginning 
abandoned nine-tenths of his children to the supreme 
glory and dominion of Satan. Is it not singular that the 
Devil, instead of being in the torments of hell, has a 
free foot and his life is spent in hunting game, with all 
the pleasure of ample success? If this be hell, how 
many souls would prefer to join him in the sport of 
u the damned,” than to join the psalm-singing chorus 
promised in heaven! Compared with the slow process 
of the Holy Ghost, how the Devil incarnates himself at 
sight, possesses himself of a body, gets a crowd of fol¬ 
lowers, and can afford even to help his rival to get 
believers and followers, as if he courted the opposition! 

One cannot make this brief and truthful summary of 
the history of the Evil Spirit, as it is given in our 
Scriptures, without appearing to burlesque. Yet the 
doctrine is ingrafted upon popular faith, and we treat 
it seriously. It is the object of this book to turn popu¬ 
lar sentiment into a new current of thought, that will 
make the nature of evil more comprehensible, and the 
supremacy of God unquestioned. 

Besides the immolation of millions at the deluge, and 
hundreds of millions in religious wars before Christ, 
and again hundreds of millions since, we have again 
tens of thousands of millions of damned souls sacrificed 
to Satan, and inconceivable millions fighting the Evil 
Spirit with all the enginery of religion and power of 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 169 


prayer, without disturbing his complacency or impress¬ 
ing his power, in a period of six thousand years. His 
omnipresence we admit; his omnipotence for evil seems 
a logical concession; his immortality and his eternity 
are a fair sequence. Let the triune God be the God 
of good, we make Satan the unity God of evil; for we 
invest him with Godlike attributes. In the battle for 
human souls, popular theology makes this fourth person 
of the Godhead the conqueror, and the God of gods, 
in derogation of the honor and glory of the one su¬ 
preme God of eternal good, and of temporary evil con¬ 
vertible into good, — the Lord God Almighty. We put 
it to all lovers of our religion to say if it would not 
profit us to erase from the record this offense to reason 
and faith, even if we have to pronounce against it as 
interpolation. 


THE FEMALE PRINCIPLE EXCLUDED. 

When we consider that man has availed himself of his 
privilege as writer of history to fasten upon the first 
created woman the origin of evil, it is indeed singular 
that he has not, in any of the religions of the world, of 
all of which man is the evangelist, availed of the op¬ 
portunity and the consistency to have a she-devil. So 
much mischief is charged to the feminine principle on 
earth, that one would suppose the principle would be 
indispensable to perfection in the evil omnipotence of 
Satan. 

It is, perhaps, an offset to this, that we exclude women 
from angeldom. All angels are young men with wings. 


170 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


Had there been but one female angel, she would in all 
delicacy have been sent to Mary to speak of her novel 
process of conception in the absence of her husband. 

This exclusion of women from angeldom is the more 
singular, when we consider that woman is the angel of 
the world. In all that is good and pure and holy and 
angelic, woman is the superior being ; and it would be 
a fairer representation, if all angels were feminine, and 
the masculine principle their disciplinary devils, who 
supply objects for the exercise of their overflowing good¬ 
ness. From the Godhead also, man’s theology excludes 
the female principle, which, on earth, is the great gene¬ 
rator in every department of life, vegetable, animal, 
and human. Three male persons are made to compose 
the whole Deity, in spite of this revelation, and in con¬ 
tradiction to the assumption, that, after the image of 
God, male and female, created he them.. 

If “ woman’s rights ” should enter into theology, 
their brighter inspiration may lead to new conceptions. 


THE CHURCH AND THE COMING REFORMATION. 

“ When doctrines meet with general reprobation, 

It is not heresy, but reformation.” 

The Church is the business-partner of religion. In 
all countries, the Church is entirely human, though the 
religion be divine. The Church is an institution: it has, 
therefore, no soul, no conscience, no God, no Devil, 
but only temporality. The care of souls is not the con¬ 
cern of the institution, but the care of itself, increase 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 171 


of its temporal wealth and power. Authorized inter- 
- pretations of Scripture, the fabrication of dogmas, of 
miracles, of sacred relics, such as bones of saints, pieces 
of the cross, liquefying the blood of saints, new revela¬ 
tions, and the like, are, by a universal law, common to all 
religious institutions of the past and the present, as a 
necessity. If ours have any similar characteristics, it 
only goes to show that the like compulsion of law holds 
us as well as the rest, and we must accept them as 
necessity. 

The true question before the Church, as before mer¬ 
cantile institutions, is, Will it pay ? Whatever doctrine 
the Church inaugurates pays in proportion to the belief 
it commands. The truth of a dogma is of no conse- 
quence, even to the people. True or untrue, if they 
believe it, it is equally profitable to every one concerned, 
as a bond of union around the moral precepts it is made 
to carry; and it is our central bond to the Church. 
The moral law which God has given is exactly alike in 
every religion of the world, except the law of retalia¬ 
tion in Moses, so pointedly condemned by Christ. But 
the dogmas which envelop it, and make it practical for 
sustaining interest and reiterated instruction, vary in 
every religion to suit the believing capacity of the peo¬ 
ples in the various climates and ages of the world. 
Faith is of prime necessity. “ Believe, and be saved,” is 
the common standard and the watchword of all religions. 
To those who have faith, a sermon can be preached out 
of the Bible of any and every religion, with equal 
moral, effect, according to the eloquence of the preacher 
and the constitutional susceptibility of the congregation. 
It is not so much the kind of food, as the manner of 


172 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


cooking, that makes good digestion and healthful nour¬ 
ishment. 

Faith is, therefore, every thing to the temporal interest 
of the Church, as well as the spiritual interest of the 
people. Want of faith is, of course, equally prejudicial; 
and it is proportionally disastrous when faith lapses into 
merely nominal belief, without animation. 

On this sound basis we presume to address to the 
Church some words of counsel. 

The moral truths of Christianity are eternal; but its 
dogmas are wisely susceptible of variation. Those which 
we have were fabricated in times of general ignorance 
on the part of the people, and in councils of the Church 
ruled by the necessity of accommodating the dogmas to 
the ignorance of the times. Every new dogma was 
fought through angry discussion, before its final accept¬ 
ance. The Scriptures may be covered by claim of 
divine inspiration, but the dogmas not. 

It is painfully apparent that the general unbelief and 
unconcern in our religion are due to this fact, viz., that 
the dogmas of an age of general ignorance can not pass 
through the ordeal of the higher reasoning powers and 
closer scrutiny of this age of universal education and 
refined intelligence. We put it to the Church to decide 
if this be unreasonable. Supposing that it is so pro¬ 
nounced, it is, nevertheless, an accomplished fact. Un¬ 
belief is spreading with education ; and there is reason to 
fear, that, if the existing Church does not meet the re¬ 
quirement, some reformer will rise, who will successfully 
present acceptable doctrine, and what is now orthodox 
may become heterodoxy, to the grievous injury of exist¬ 
ing institutions. Nothing is so impossible as to resist 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 173 


the onward progress of new thought, with weapons of 
antiquated structure, — the crossbow of olden times 
against the rifled repeaters of the new era. 

What we desire is, that the Church will comprehend the 
situation ; and, if it recognize the necessity for change, 
that it will consider the more rapid movements of this 
age, and bestir itself. 

Guizot describes the age precursive of the Reformation 
of Luther: — 

“ The whole mass was quickened. It was a period 
of voyages, travels, enterprises, discoveries, and inven¬ 
tions of every kind. The coast of Africa was explored, 
the passage discovered around the Cape of Good Hope, 
to India. America was discovered, and commerce 
widely extended. Gunpowder, the compass, engraving 
on copper, linen, paper, and printing were among the 
inventions. This spirit opened the avenue to the great 
Reformation of the sixteenth century.” History repeats 
itself. Is not this nineteenth century, through exactly 
similar causes, greatly intensified, opening the avenue to 
a reformation of far greater latitude ? 

The Rev. Dr. Bellows sounds the alarm. In his 
recent tour of Germany, he found everywhere, and 
among all classes, a painful dying-out of the religious 
element. And so completely are the doctrines of 
Christianity worn out of faith, that there is no hope for 
any new growth of religion out of the old elements. 

This remark applies equally to France and Italy. 
The contagion spreads rapidly in England, and in the 
States of America. 

Believing that the ancient ecclesiastical dogmas endan¬ 
ger our religion itself, we invite all earnest minds to re- 


174 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


view them, and prepare either to defend them by new 
and stronger reasoning, or, seeing that the age of light 
will hold to them no longer, abandon them, after having 
studied out new dogmas that will commend themselves 
to larger and more active acceptance; that faith may 
revive, and give new life and usefulness to our reli¬ 
gion. 

As an aid to this review, we present a few selections, 
with the criticisms which we may expect to meet from 
the coming spirit of investigation, and from the instinct¬ 
ive want of a creed that will command enlightened 
faith with the educated masses, and with other nations 
that we try to win over to Christianity. 


MODERN CHRISTIANITY WEIGHED IN THE 
BALANCE. 

“ Give an account of thy stewardship.” 

We put it to thinking Christians to say which would 
form the more enduring basis, as well as the more win¬ 
ning to converts, and the more acceptable to God, — the 
ancient miracles of which we can boast, or the modern 
good our religion can show it has achieved. Which 
prayer is most profitable, — “Lord, we thank thee that 
our religion is better than others; ” or, “ Lord, we con¬ 
fess that it has not made us a better people than our 
neighbors ” ? 

The dean of Carlisle (August, 1862) denounces the 
sad catalogue of England’s sins, — “ our wanton luxury, 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OP GOOD AND EVIL. 175 


our licentiousness, our drunkenness, our commercial and 
manufacturing frauds.” Another clergyman (same 
date) states that there are six hundred thousand habit¬ 
ual drunkards, and sixty thousand yearly deaths from 
drunkenness; nine million of Englishmen who never 
go to church, and two hundred and fifty thousand com¬ 
mon prostitutes. 

Let us look fairly in the face the results that have 
been produced by Christianity as we interpret and ad¬ 
minister it. 

Let us begin with its object, as avowed by Jesus, 
viz., to supply a more practical religion, and to make 
people better than they could be under the Jewish re¬ 
ligion ; to diminish evil, and increase virtue. 

We have Israelites enough in Christendom, who are 
guided by the old religion, to enable us to settle the 
question by fair and unanswerable comparison. 

Let us look in our prisons, and count the Jews. Run 
your eye over the criminal calendars: among the as¬ 
saults, the wife-beating, the pickpockets, the forgers, the 
robbers, and murderers, how many Jews? Make the 
rounds of Leicester Square, and among the abandoned 
women, how many Jews? Consult the court-records: 
how many crim. cons, and divorce-suitors are Israelites ? 
In the lunatic asylums, how many Jews show the re¬ 
sults of excesses, either personal, parental, or social ? 

Shall we walk through our poorhouses, and seek for 
Jews abandoned to this awful form of degradation ? 

Hast seen a beggar Jew ? Amid the pugilists, the 
rowdies, the gambling-hells, the night-poachers, how 
many ? 

In the feastingrhouse, point out a Jew making a God 
of his belly 1 


176 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


Search the highways and the byways, and amid the 
ragged, unclean, spot a single Israelite ! But, lest you 
tire, we tax your search only once more. Amid the 
drunken, besotted thousands in Christian dram-shops, 
and in the highways of this Christian people and this 
land of the better religion, backed up by the most power¬ 
ful government and most lavish waste of gold, show thou, 
if thou canst, a staggering Israelite! Ay, thou mayest 
affect to despise him and his religion; but before God, 
0 Christian! (religions each in hand) the Jew is this 
day a better man than thou. 

If we turn our eyes to the Parsee, to the Moham¬ 
medan, or to the Hindoo, we shall find the comparison 
nothing better for our side. Nay, in any fair test, the 
Mormon religion excels ours in making its community 
universally pious and prayerful, in restraining crime, 
and in promoting charity and every-day practice of 
virtue. 

“ For forms of faith let fools contend: 

The well administered is best.” 

The fault is in the administration of ours. We have 
clung too long to superstitions fabricated in an age of 
ignorance, till they are universally disbelieved. We 
have banished inspired talent by filling our pulpits with 
milk-and-water men, who for bread bind themselves to 
old superstitions. We persecute the free mind, and 
forbid it to soar to heaven and seek its light there. 
“ All wisdom, all godliness, all human progress, end in, 
and must for ever stop at, the Thirty-nine Articles and 
the old-fashioned Prayer-book.” 

Let the Church look to its danger. The hour ap- 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 177 


proaches. The moral world has accelerated its speed; 
and, alas for the Church if it stand still while all else 
goes forward! Shall we say that the proper test, the 
true criterion, of a religion, is the betterment of the peo¬ 
ple, the reduction of crime, the notability of virtue ? 
Surely, if it be barren of these, it fails in its only pur¬ 
pose ; and upon no other issue can it be judged. 

Now, rather than admit that the religion of Christ is 
at fault, that Jesus died to redeem men from sin, and, 
instead, they are greater sinners than before, is it not 
reasonable that we question whether what is preached 
to us is really the religion that Jesus taught? 

If, taking the Thirty-nine Articles one by one, and 
searching the Scriptures, we find no such words, expres¬ 
sions, nor doctrines, from the lips of Christ; if we com¬ 
pare the Episcopal-Church constitution and service, the 
prayer-book system, the monopoly of benefices, the 
lordly high priests, and the rest of the establishment, 
with the system and manner of Jesus and his apostles, 
and find no similitude and no authorization, — if, then, 
we pray God for light and counsel, we shall hear a voice 
from heaven saying, “ Reformation ! ” “ Come back to 
the original faith and practice of Jesus, and therein will 
be found salvation.” 


INSPIRATION AND REVELATION. 

“Reason can and ought to judge, not only of the meaning, but also 
of the morality and evidence, of revelation.” — Bishop Butler. 

True inspiration is the power of lighting up the inert 
minds of the mass by felicitous expression and soul- 
12 


178 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


stirring appeal; of winning men by apt illustration, and 
by touching the inner life-springs which lie beyond the 
reach of ordinary address. It is not a gift of learning: 
it is an instinct inherent in men who give themselves 
up to the impulse of the spirit, and to the electric con¬ 
duction of believing listeners. It is not of art, but of 
Nature ; not of man’s elaboration, but of Nature’s spon¬ 
taneous production. This is the true and only intelli¬ 
gible definition of the word. It is but two centuries 
since it got a change of meaning when applied to our 
Gospels. To him who believes that the soul of man is 
the inspired breath of God (as in Genesis), there can 
be no difficulty in understanding what is inspiration. 
The mind of man is a God-working organization. 
When we seek to distinguish instinct from reason, we 
merely attribute the former to the direct workings of 
ever-present and ever-guiding Providence; the latter, 
still to Providence as its creator: but to man’s mind 
left to itself as it were, we attribute his reasoning 
faculty. 

It is w r hen a valuable thought comes unbidden to the 
mind, revealing some clearer insight into what reason 
had left unfathomed, that we properly apply inspiration 
as a distinctive term. It is in some respects not unlike 
dream-thoughts, that come when the mind is not awake, 
and not making effort. Many of the greatest dis¬ 
coveries in science, philosophy, and moral explication, 
have come to man in this apparently unbidden way; 
but probably never except to minds that had previously 
engrossed their thoughts with the study of the matter. 

To whatever source we refer this exaltation, none 
can separate it from connection with the spirit-working 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL 179 


which has been claimed by every religious founder 
under the name of inspiration or revelation. Each re¬ 
ligion of a thousand like our own claims, as we have 
said, that its inspiration is of a peculiarly God-sent kind, 
and all the rest impostures. But as all the moral 
truths taught by one are, with slight variation of 
words, repetitions of the same axioms that have been 
taught by all the others, it would be more logical to 
admit that they, like many rivulets, came from one 
source, the source of all things physical and moral, — 
the God of all revelators, and all peoples of whatever 
religion under the sun ; making impartial distribution 
among his children, suiting the form to the varied mind. 
This kind of inspiration we may comprehend; for all 
men of deep thinking have knowledge of it, — every 
poet and philosopher as well as prophet and religious 
law-giver. So, also, we know by personal experience 
what is the inspiration of a popular preacher, who, by 
the manner of uttering what may contain no new idea 
whatever, leads men captive, and converts unbelievers 
to the faith. Whether directly or indirectly, it is from 
heaven that this creative power can only proceed. It 
is common to all religions, and by no means the most 
exalted in ours. 

But what we can not conceive is the inspiration of 
the newspaper reporter, for instance, who, after the ser¬ 
mon, gathers up from the crowd reminiscences of what 
the inspired man said, and sets them in order for publi¬ 
cation. 

Yet this is what we call inspiration and revelation in 
the gospel reporters of the sermons of Christ; and, 
cruelly indeed, we must say, it has got to be held that 


180 THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

he who does not admit this must be held to disbelieve 
the inspiration of Jesus himself; against the logic of 
which all good-willing men should make protest. 
Rather he the more believes in Christ’s inspiration who 
does not believe in the inspiration of others to complete 
his unfinished mission. It is a curious idea, that finds 
no plea in reason, or out of it, that would especially 
inspire four different persons to write down the openly- 
proclaimed sayings and doings of another person, which 
is quite within the competency of one ordinary clerk. 
It is making too cheap the dispensation of miracles. 
Besides, as a literary production, or as a history, it is 
not miraculously clear above ordinary human writing. 
The history was susceptible of better presentation by 
any common historian without aid of miracles. And 
what must be thought of the writers themselves, who, 
having written by special power of miracle from God, 
prefer to let it go forth to* the world as words of their 
own compilation, and to conceal from us the miracu¬ 
lous aid vouchsafed them ! In no line of any of the 
Gospels is any acknowledgment of inspiration or revela¬ 
tion. Either, then, they are dishonest by claiming 
what is not theirs, or we are sacrilegious forgers of the 
name of God when we affix it to documents, which, 
according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, God 
never wrote nor dictated. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 181 


A NEW VIEW (5f RETRIBUTION AND IMPAR¬ 
TIAL JUSTICE. 

“ It is impossible but what offenses will come.” —Luke xvii. 1 ; Matt. 
xviii. 17. 

The diversity of character among men has been 
shown to be a necessity. Good and evil, like life and 
death, light and shade, and other contrasts, are mutual 
necessities to the very existence of each other. Evil 
is the slave of good, vice is the life of virtue, want is 
the parent of charity, sickness is the guardian of health, 
servants are a necessity to the governing head, death is 
indispensable to break up exhausted forms, and to sup¬ 
ply material for new life. 

If these moral contrasts be necessary, they must have 
counter moral agents. Those we call evil, and those we 
call good, working together as they do in harmony as 
to final results, make it requisite that there shall be 
allotted to men the several parts, good and evil, in the 
drama of life which they enact. There is no escape from 
this logical sequence. 

What if it should be the plan of Providence, instead 
of rewarding the good, already well compensated by 
approving conscience and social position, that the poor, 
the suffering, the victims of vicious propensities, who are 
tormented in life by doing the necessary evil, should 
have claim to compensation hereafter ! We are God’s, 
children; and, if their inheritance is to be fairly shared, 
rotation in office in the next life would seem not unrea¬ 
sonable. God’s, ways are not man’s judgments. One 


•182 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


popular doctrine was framed on the Mosaic doctrine of 
an u eye for an eye,”— eternal hell for temporary aber¬ 
rations ; but Jesus condemned the whole scheme, in 
denouncing the doctrine it is founded upon as being 
ungodly, and worthy of severest condemnation. 

• What we are suggesting is not of our cogitation. It 
is. our Saviour’s own teaching in the illustration of the 
rich man and Lazarus. 

The rich man lived sumptuously in this life, without 
anv sin being charged. He had his comforts here. 
Lazarus was poor, without any virtue being credited. 
He had his torments here. In consequence, they 
changed places in the next world. The rich man took 
his turn at the torments, and the poor man took his 
turn at the comforts. When the rich man asked to be 
relieved, Abraham clearly enunciated a doctrine of God 
to show the justice of the change and the award. 
“ Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime received thy 
good things, and, likewise, Lazarus evil things ; but now 
he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” Corroborat¬ 
ed as doctrine by Luke vi. 24. We have not a dogma 
of Christianity a tenth part so clearly stated as this; 
and it is for this reason we ask for it such consideration 
as the sense which is wrapped up in it entitles it to re¬ 
ceive. We must have new dogmas to replace those 
which are getting into discredit because of enlighten¬ 
ment ; and here is a fair basis for a new fabrication, 
which can be modified to suit the popular acceptance. 
Our Saviour had some view of the kind regarding rota¬ 
tion and change of relative positions hereafter; and it 
is not doing our duty to rule out its consideration. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 183 


SCRIPTURE METAPHORS. 

Had the metaphors of Scripture been confined to the 
Asiatics, to whom they were addressed, there would 
have been less danger of misapprehension; for they are 
in common use there to this time. But to us, their 
metaphors deprive the Gospels of all the effect of reve¬ 
lation : we want another revelation to explain their 
meaning. After much angry and very bitter contention 
between Arians and Athanasians in the fourth century, 
the Council of Nice decided that .“Son of God ” must 
be taken as having a literal meaning, and not spiritual. 
And the bishop was condemned, who, like Origen 
(A.D. 230), taught its meaning to be “ son by adop¬ 
tion.” The Scriptures are for Christians for all time; 
and we of this age being answerable, according to the 
light God gives us, should be held inexcusable if we 
permit any ancient disputation to bar us from at all times 
consulting the oracle of heaven, and working out our 
salvation by the word of God, in preference to the 
stoutly-contested vote of any theologic assembly. 

In devoutly searching the Scriptures to find what was 
meant by “ Son of God,” we find reason to justify the 
Church of this age in reviewing the decision of the 
Council of Nice, in response to the tacit calls of infi¬ 
delity, for the removal of stumbling-blocks to faith. In 
the Gospel of John i. 12, we find that “ Sons of God” 
was a religious title assumed by the new sect; which 
title all converts were entitled to. u Children of God ” 
is used in the same sense, Luke xx. 36, and Phil. ii. 15. 


184 THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

All that are moved by the Spirit are 44 children of 
God.” You are children, in the Spirit by which we 
call God father (Romans). John x. 35, gives 44 inspired 
of God” as the meaning of 44 son.” Father and Son 
are forbidden to be used, except spiritually (Matt, xxiii. 
9). Jesus set the example by disclaiming his natural 
mother, brothers, and sisters. If Paul had read 44 Son 
of God ” literally, he could not have said, without ex¬ 
planation, Jesus was made of the seed of David accord¬ 
ing to the flesh, and was declared to be 44 Son of God, 
according to the spirit of holiness ” (Rom. i. 3) 

This seems conclusive of Paul’s understanding of the 
term. It is a denial of the miraculous conception, and 
an affirmation of the carnal paternity from Joseph and 
from David, which prophecy required. This is confirmed 
in Cor. xv. 45, &c., where Paul explains that the body 
of Jesus was formed first, and a living spirit afterwards. 
(As sons) we are with Jesus, coheritors of God (Rom. 
viii. 17). God begot us in the word of truth; Paul 
begot many in Jesus ; he suffered the pains of childbirth 
in giving spiritual birth to a convert: metaphor can not 
go farther. Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers, 
meaning spiritually born again as they were into one 
brotherhood (Rom. viii. 9). Paul, a bachelor, calls 
Timothy his son, and again his brother in Christ. We 
have an early example in Genesis of a religious sect 
calling themselves 44 the 4 Sons of God,’ who married the 
daughters of men ” (brothers). Jesus did not take on 
him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham. 
It behooved him in all things to be made like his brethren 

(Heb. ii. 16, 17). 

Is not this a point-blank denial of the paternity of 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 185 


the Holy Ghost, and equally proof that he came from the 
seed of man ? Jesus was made a little lower than the 
angels; and for suffering death he receives the crown of 
honor and of glory (in heaven) (Heb. ii. 9). He died 
for his own sins as well as for others’ (Heb. v. 8). 
Had Jesus been generated by the Holy Ghost, or had 
the chapters in Matthew and Luke narrating it been 
genuine gospel, and not subsequent interpolation, the 
writers could not have chronicled the second investment, 
and spiritually begetting by the Holy Ghost at the bap¬ 
tism of John. The two stories are so manifestly incon¬ 
sistent, that one of them should be discredited. 

“ Thou art my son : this day I have begotten thee.” 
This the correct quotation; for Paul tells us so (Heb. 
i. 5, and v. 5). The same expression is in Psalms. 
Strauss tells us that Justin Martyr so quoted it, A. D. 
140, also Clement of Alexandria, Augustine, and copies 
of Luke still extant. (It was not my only son.) There 
is therefore a certainty that “ this day,” &c., has been 
expunged by transcribers since the time of Paul and 
Justin Martyr; and it seems that the infancy chapters 
were added to the original Gospels, which then required 
the erasure. Pious frauds of this kind to make doctrine 
are charged by Lardner, Mosheim, Middleton, Jortin, 
Priestley, Neander, and others. The passage in one 
edition of Josephus, speaking of Jesus, and apropos to 
nothing before or after it, is pronounced an evident 
interpolation, by Blondell, Le Clerc, Bishop Warbur- 
ton, and many others. Eusebius is accused of it; for of 
numerous authorities before Eusebius, who referred to 
every evidence that might favor the cause, not one 
quoted it. Botteck’s History, vol. ii. p. 148, &c., gives 


186 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


us specific accounts of the manifold corruptions and 
heretical doctrines of the early Christians. He says 
they changed the whole character of Christianity by 
sophisms and subtilties of theology. The time came, as 
prophesied by Paul, “ when they would not be con¬ 
tent with sound doctrine ; when they would turn their 
ears from truth to fables.” Epiphanius, Jerome, Austin, 
and Chrysostom in the fourth century, say that to the 
Gospel of John alone we are indebted for a knowledge 
of the divinity of Christ. 

It is certain that Stephen the martyr knew nothing 
of a Trinity of personal Gods; for what he saw when 
'heaven was opened to his vision was one personal God 
only, and the soul of Christ, “ the Son of man ” on the 
right, where any other might have stood; and no third 
person of the Godhead, though Stephen is said to have 
been full of the Holy Ghost. 

“ Son of God ” and u Son of man” are terms that them¬ 
selves are contradictory of certain assumptions. u Son ” 
carries with it, by enforcement of language, the neces¬ 
sity of generation from a previously-existing being. 
Such a term is a denial of co-eternity or identity with 
that being. Twin-brother, of God could alone have 
been expressive of our doctrine ; and then there would 
be difficulties. If two beings existed for ever, and were 
of the same age, they are exactly not father and son. 

“ Son of man ” was the favorite term Jesus used. 
How could this be if he were not a son of man ? We 
are all sons of man. Son of the Holy Ghost alone 
would be proper, according to Luke’s account; and it is 
negative of Luke’s story that Jesus never so called him¬ 
self. “Son of God” was not a term to distinguish him 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 187 


from other men, because he gave the same title to all 
who became his disciples. 

“ My father and I are one” is an expression meaning 
accord, and not identity of person, as John xvii. 11 and 
21 makes clear; for Jesus prays that his disciples may 
be one in the same way that he and his Father are one. 
Metaphorical expressions of this kind are so plentiful, 
that we need not multiply examples. The great truth 
stands above all metaphoric subtilties of interpretation, 
that Jesus himself never taught us nor his disciples what 
Athanasius wishes to add to his doctrine. Never did 
he say he was God. . Never did he tell the story of his 
mother’s miraculous conception with the Holy Ghost. 
Never did he treat her with reverence, but with disre¬ 
spect, which is itself denial. Never did he tell us nor 
them that there are three personal Gods; nor did his 
apostles ever teach such a doctrine. Who is Athanasius, 
or the majority vote of any council, that we set them 
above Christ himself? 


THE GENERATION OF JESUS ACCORDING TO 
MATTHEW. 

Two unlettered persons, Joseph the carpenter and 
Mary his wife, quarreled about Mary’s being found 
with child (by the Holy. Ghost) before the proper time 
after the nuptials. 

Her husband, a just man, decided to abandon her, 
but not to publicly expose her shame. She appears to 
have no excuse to offer. 


188 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


Joseph had a dream after this, that an angel told him 
it was the work of the Holy Ghost, and therefore he 
should not fear to take his wife into favor again. There 
is here an anachronism; for the Holy Ghost was not 
known at that time. Joseph is addressed in his dream 
as son of David. It is said that Joseph had not, up 
to this time, any carnal intercourse with his wife, nor 
during the continuance of this pregnancy, — not till 
after the child was born. 

The words import that they lived as man and wife 
afterward ; but meantime they lived together Platoni- 
cally. Jesus is her first-born child. The reason for 
this alleged abstinence from marital attention on Jo¬ 
seph’s part was to fulfill an ancient prophecy that the 
mother of the Messiah should be a virgin. 

As neither Joseph nor Mary knew of this when they 
married, they could not have behaved so unnaturally 
on that account. The allegation is incredible without 
some better explanation. 

No plausible reason is given for Mary’s keeping secret 
from her husband so important a fact as the honor God 
Almighty had conferred on her womb, and the object 
of it if she knew it. When we consider that they were 
poor work-people (confined to close quarters always), 
it is not credible that this strange and dangerous 
miracle to a married woman’s honor could happen, and 
not be at once told to her husband, who must be in¬ 
formed some time if a child resulted, or be deceived in 
the other case. The story shows that it would not have 
been known so early had not her husband found it out. 
“ She was found with child of the Holy Ghost,” is our 
translation. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 189 

It is nowhere intimated that his wife, up to that time, 
was conscious of any miraculous deviation from the 
natural coarse. 

The first idea of the matter was a dream Joseph is 
said to have had, in which an angel 'implies Mary’s 
premature pregnancy, attributes it to the Holy Ghost, 
and hands over to Joseph’s embrace the bride of the 
Holy Ghost. 44 Take unto thee the wife ” means carnal 
commerce ; but rather would he have been ordered to 
respect the sanctity of the womb, and to for ever hold it 
sacred from human desecration. 

Joseph continues to dream, — four dreams in all ; 
and Mary appears to the last to know of nothing extraor¬ 
dinary in regard to her condition, nor to the birth of 
her child,—neither from any angel direct, nor from any 
dream of her own, nor from her husband at second 
hand. The massacre of all the children in the country 
by Herod, to fulfill a supposed interpretation of ancient 
prophecy, is contrary to history, which could not have 
been silent on such an event, even if Herod had any 
such authority. And the traveling star that guided 
44 the wise men ” is not recorded by astronomers, nor by 
Luke, who tells quite a different story about it. No¬ 
where is any thing given of the awkwardness of allow¬ 
ing Mary to marry, instead of stopping off her marriage 
by more timely announcing the matter to her, and mak¬ 
ing her virginity less questionable, as well as saving man¬ 
kind from unnecessary strain upon their powers of faith. 

This strain becomes terrible when Matthew, while¬ 
asking us to believe Joseph was not his father, asks us 
to believe that Jesus came to be a son of David by 
Joseph’s being a lineal descendant from David. This 
seems to be a fatal discrepancy. 


190 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


THE GENERATION OF JESUS ACCORDING TO 
LUKE. 

Luke gives some particulars about the way Joseph’s 
wife came to be pregnant. 

A person, introducing himself as Gabriel to Elizabeth 
on an exactly similar occasion, presented himself to 
Joseph’s wife in her apartments, and paid her compli¬ 
ments of so flattering a nature that she was alarmed. 
Lie desired her to quiet her fears, as he had only called 
to say that she had found favor with God, and she 
would have a son who would be called the son of the 
Most High, and God would give him the throne of 
David his father. Gabriel was informed by Mary that 
she and her husband were not in such intimacy as would 
make it possible. He told her that the Holy Ghost 
would come upon her; and, upon this account, the child 
shall be called Son of God. 

He told her that something of the same kind had 
also caused her superannuated cousin Elizabeth to be 
with child at this time. Mary gracefully replied that 
she hoped it would be as he said; and Gabriel departed. 

Luke sends Mary away at once, and keeps her for 
three months away from Joseph at Elizabeth’s home. 

Joseph never knew any thing about this Gabriel 
matter, never had any misgivings about its being his 
child in the natural course. He and his wife were living 
affectionately together after her return from the visit; 
and the text shows that they registered the child at the 
circumcision as Jesus, son of Joseph and Mary, as re¬ 
quired by the law. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 191 

“ Tli e parents ” (xi. 27 and xi. 41), “ Joseph and 
his mother” (xi. 33 and xi. 43), in our translation, are, 
in the original, according to Griesbach and Le Maistre 
de Sacy, translation of 1672, and many others, “ his 
father and mother.” 

He was certainly not registered, as we now register 
him, as the Son of God and Mary, or Son of the Holy 
Ghost and Mary, in any Jewish temple. The priest is 
represented as saying many complimentary things, — 
which the parents, however, did not get any sense from, 
— but not a word about his being God, or second per¬ 
son of a Trinity of Gods. Yet this priest is said to have 
a revelation from God about it, and to be filled with the 
Holy Ghost. Neither he nor any one else at that time 
knew any thing but unity of God. 

Here was a fitting time for the annunciation of the 
Trinity, and for the proclamation that the child was no 
son of Joseph and no son of David. Here was an 
occasion where the high-priest must have declined to 
put “ the mother of God ” through the purification and 
the sacrificial ceremonies required by the law when the 
child has a Jewish father; and the uncleanness attaching 
in such case can not be predicated of the miraculous 
conception of the birth of a God. 

That the writer of the first two chapters of Luke had 
no idea of the Holy Ghost’s agency with Joseph’s wife 
being construed as generating a Deity incarnate may 
be seen by the story about Elizabeth and John Bap¬ 
tist and Zacharias. Zacharias was filled with the Holy 
Ghost. Elizabeth had the Holy Ghost introduced into 
her womb ; and John, her baby, was filled with the Holy 
Ghost from his mother’s womb. Evidently the same 


192 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


process is intended to be described in both cases. 
Zacharias was incredulous, like Mary, alleging, as she 
did, physical improbability in the way. In Zacharias’s 
case (i. 13), it is evident that Nature took its course ; 
and it is to be inferred that the writer intended the 
same in Joseph’s case. The agency of the Holy Ghost 
would be quite out of place for engendering a male and 
mortal body, when it is shown, that, to invest a mortal 
child with the Holy Ghost had no need of such infrac¬ 
tion of the law of human generation. 

It is not a little singular, that, while Gabriel was 
delicate enough to address the husband of Elizabeth on 
such a matter, he should go to Mary instead of her hus¬ 
band in a like case. It was more particularly due to 
Mary that Joseph should have been first informed of 
the matter. It proved also a blunder; for it brought 
trouble and disgrace upon Mary; and, after all, the 
angel was obliged to make an extra visit to Joseph in a 
dream to heal the breach made by his first impolitic 
management. 


MATTHEW AND LUKE COMPARED. 

If Matthew’s gospel antedates Luke’s, Luke includes 
it among the many gospels that were extant when he 
wrote. Luke intimates that he wrote to give his friend 
Theophilus more reliable history than lie could gather 
from existing Gospels. 

Having Matthew before him, he would have attested 
Matthew’s history if he had believed it true, or found it 
satisfactory for faith. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 193 

Luke ignores, and in fact denies by rejecting, the 
following stories given by Matthew : — 

1st. That Joseph descended from David through 
Solomon, and that Matthew was his grandfather, and 
Jacob his father. 

2d. That Joseph accused his wife of infidelity, and 
resolved to drive her away. 

3d. That Joseph was induced by a dream to believe 
her untimely pregnancy was the work of the Holy 
Ghost. 

4th. That the angel told Joseph it would be a son, 
and he must name him Jesus, because he will save his 
people, and deliver them from their sins. 

5th. That all this was done to fulfill a prophecy, that 
his mother should be a virgin, and his name should 
be Emmanuel. 

6th. That Joseph abstained from commerce with his 
wife till after the child was born. 

7th. The story of the wise men giving rich presents 
to the babe, of the special star sent to guide them, of 
its being a house (and not a stable) where Mary and 
her child were, and of the birth at Bethlehem being 
according to a prophecy quoted; also of their having an 
angelic dream, directing them to return by a different 
road. 

8th. That Joseph dreamed again that he must fly 
into Egypt, and stay there with the child until ordered 
by the angel to return; and that he went to Egypt in 
order to fulfill the prophecy quoted. Luke ignores the 
whole story about the flight into Egypt. 

9th. That Herod massacred all the children in the 


13 


194 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


country of two years old and under, to fulfill another 
quoted prophecy. 

10th. That Joseph had a third dream, and a fourth 
dream countermanding the third. 

11th. That instead of returning to Bethlehem, where 
Matthew evidently fixes their native residence, they 
went to live at Nazareth, to fulfill a prophecy quoted. 

Wherever Luke got his version, it is to be presumed 
Matthew had knowledge of the same stories, but did not 
consider them reliable, or as calculated to help Chris¬ 
tianity. Matthew therefore denies and repudiates the 
following stories given by Luke, as collected from 
various sources, and believed by him reliable, and as part 
of Christian gospel. 

1st. The whole story about John Baptist’s being mi¬ 
raculously generated by barren and superannuated par¬ 
ents ; of an angel’s visit to the father (whose salutation, 
“ Fear not,” is the same as Matthew’s angel makes to 
Joseph, and Luke’s angel to Mary) with the announce¬ 
ment that John will be filled with the Holy Ghost from 
his mother’s womb ; that the father did not believe 
the angel, and was punished by being struck dumb; 
that the angel said his name was Gabriel. 

2d. That this same angel appeared, not to Joseph in 
a dream, but awake to Mary at her house in Nazareth, 
and told her she would have a child, and that she should 
name him Jesus; that he shall be called Son of the 
Most High, and shall be King of Israel; that Mary 
doubted the angel’s words on physical grounds. 

3d. That the angel described the process of genera- 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 195 


tion, and alleged the reason why the child should be 
called the Son of God, viz., because of the agency of 
the Holy Ghost in the matter. 

4th. That when the mother of John, then enciente , 
heard Mary’s voice, the babe leaped in her womb for 
joy, and she was filled with the Holy Ghost.* 

5th. Then follow eleven verses of poetic exaltation, 
which, if uttered by an unlettered woman like Mary, 
we must, set down as a miracle. Matthew ignores it. 

6th. That Joseph and Mary were taken to Bethlehem 
by a Roman decree to register themselves under a Jew¬ 
ish sacerdotal requisition as man and wife, because 
Joseph was of the house of David. Here Mary was 
confined (in a stable ; for they used a manger for a bed, 
there being no room in the public house”). 

Tth. That they w^ere (poor) shepherds in the field at 
night, and not wealthy sages, to whom the birth was 
announced ; that, instead of a star, it was an angel and a 
multitude of the heavenly host, and a verbal announce¬ 
ment ; but no rich presents, and no adoration, and no 
angelic dream giving directions about their return. 

8th. Matthew ignores, as gospel, Luke’s account of 
the circumcision; the purification; presentation of Jesus 
to the Lord at Jerusalem ; the revelation from the Holy 
Ghost to Simeon; the presentation of Jesus to Simeon 
by his father and mother, desiring the customary cere¬ 
monials of the law of Moses, which were only accorded 
to the children of Jewish fathers ; the poetic address of 

* We have here a process of filling a foetus in utero with the 
Holy Ghost, after it had been formed by ordinary human process ; 
and an evidence that the child did not, on account of being thus created 
by the Holy Ghost, become a Son of God in the sense Athanasius gives 

it. 


196 


THE GOSPEL OE GOOD AND EVIL. 


Simeon, and the great things that he prophesied of their 
child, which were beyond the comprehension of his 
father and mother. 

9th. The story of the talent shown at twelve years of 
age; of Mary’s first upbraiding him for straying, and 
giving his father and mother trouble ; of his excuse that 
he was about his Father’s business, and of their not un¬ 
derstanding what he meant by “his Father’s business,” 
apparently a spiritual expression, — all are ignored by 
Matthew. 

10th. The genealogy by Luke is not given in the 
first two chapters. Evidently Luke and Matthew found 
two genealogies. Paul speaks of there being many, 
causing great dissensions. While Matthew makes Jo- 
seph, the father of Jesus, a descendant of David through 
Solomon, Luke traces his ancestry through Nathan, but 
in both making out that Jesus came from the loins of 
David through Joseph. It is clear that they agree that 
he was Joseph’s son by natural birth, else why give 
Joseph’s pedigree at all ? 

It is noteworthy, in all this review, that none of the 
parties concerned speak of or hint that the baby was to 
be, or was, a God incarnate, that he was a second per¬ 
son among three personal Gods, or that the Holy Ghost 
was a Godhead. 

Considering that all parties were Jews, knowing no¬ 
thing of a Trinity, and having no such idea of Holy 
Ghost, and that, when Mary was being informed by an 
angel, the whole truth should reasonably be expected 
to be explained to her ; and considering, that, to save the 
child’s life, it was necessary to fly into Egypt, as if there 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 197 


was nothing miraculous in his nature; considering that 
Jesus himself never spoke of his miraculous conception, 
nor of a trinity of Gods, of whom he was one, as we 
should expect to have announced in plain and intelli¬ 
gible language; and considering that two of his evan¬ 
gelists ignore the miraculous conception, and that the 
other two give fragmentary, inconsistent, vague, and 
irreconcilable histories, legendary in their character; 
and also that ecclesiastical historians doubt that Luke’s 
original had any part of the history preceding the begin¬ 
ning of Christ’s ministry; — considering all these things, 
and the general unbelief, it seems as if prudence would 
justify us in relieving the Christian conscience from 
compulsory belief in the present dogma of the miracu¬ 
lous corporeal generation of Jesus; which would in no 
way lessen our belief in his divine mission, nor detract 
from the self-convincing beauty and power of his doc¬ 
trine. 

We put it to all true Christians to say if it does not 
involve great improbabilities, when a historian tells 
wonderful things of a man’s infancy, and great wisdom 
at twelve years of age, and yet shows that he knows 
nothing of this man from twelve to thirty years of age. 

That the miraculous powers of such a person, having 
such a mission, should lie so idle and unproductive for 
thirty years, that they who knew all about him from the 
beginning could find nothing to record, passes all credi¬ 
bility. It comes very nearly to a proof that the histori¬ 
ans knew nothing of him until the beginning*of his 
ministry at thirty years of age. 


198 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 

“ Men put not new wine into old bottles, lest the old flavor spoil the 
new.” 

Nothing has so much contributed to the evils of dissen¬ 
sion in Christianity as the task it assumed to carry 
along with it the religion of Moses. As many highly 
important and contradictory differences exist between 
them, and as our religion stands in no need of its help, 
but gets from it only embarrassment, we feel confident, 
that whenever the increasing intelligence of the world 
shall call for a corrective review of the Christian doc¬ 
trines, to bring it back to primitive Christianity, from 
which it has strayed, the first movement in the reform 
will be to cut loose from the whole religion of Moses, 
and pronounce Christianity perfect in itself. 

We are not going to constitute ourselves judges of the 
claim which Moses (unlike our evangelists) makes to 
having received his religion by revelation from God 
himself. Happily, Jesus, the founder of our faith, has 
himself pronounced upon that question a judgment so 
very clear and unmistakable, that we are left in won¬ 
der, that, while we have strained at every text to make 
doctrine, this solemn adjudication against the claim of 
Moses seems to have been hushed. Hearken to the 
judgment of Christ! Ye have heard that it hath been 
said, an eye for an eye, take life for life, love your 
friends, and hate your enemies. [Revelation of God ac¬ 
cording to Moses.] But I say unto you, nay, revenge 
not, return good for evil, love your enemies as your 
friends. [Revelation of God according to Jesus.] 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 199 

Is not liere a direct and unqualified condemnation of 
the religion of Moses (if false in one, false in all), and 
a denial that it was ever revealed to him of God ? Here 
are two religions, as opposite in their essence as God 
and Demon. Is it not a mocking of reason, and an 
offense to the understanding, to attempt to reconcile 
them ? Can we pretend that God has changed his 
mind, and, at a sudden thought, reversed his moral law ? 
that the moment Jesus pronounced this revelation, the 
bitter, savage, and most ungodlike law of Moses was 
the actual and the true law of God, for this world, and 
all the worlds of space, and for the heavens, whence 
his laws come ? and that, sudden and unwarned, the 
next moment, the most opposite and contradictory law, 
condemning the former as a mistake, issued from the 
mouth of the same God with whom a thousand years 
are as one day, and whose law is unchangeable and ever¬ 
lasting? 

Many of the most learned and devout Christians can 
not reconcile the God of Moses with the Trinitarian 
Deity of our religion. 

Moses claims to have the fullest revelation from God, 
besides having been favored with actually peeing him 
“ face to face, as a man sees his friepd.” The God he 
saw was not a Trinity, but a Unity, particularly jealous 
of all pretensions to having equals. 

The God Moses saw was not three persons, but only 
one person. 

Now, Moses knew all about the Egyptian trinity; for 
it was an Egyptian doctrine, and is clear that he taught 
Unity in opposition to it. If there be a Trinity of Gods, 
or any thing of the kind, and this truth was concealed 


200 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


or withheld from Moses, the truth was not revealed to 
him, nor did lie at all see the God we worship. This 
would confirm the judgment of Jesus, already quoted 
against Moses. Among the errors of Moses, he did not 
mention the Unity and single personality, because he 
did not himself teach the Trinity of personal Gods 
which opposes it. 

If we look into the Epistles, we find that St. Paul 
made a powerful effort to cut loose from the whole dead 
weight of the Mosaic law; rather letting the Jews go, 
and preaching only to Gentiles. He warned the 
Church, that, if it retained any one part of the law, it 
would be bound to the whole law. Peter was con¬ 
demned by Paul for cumbering Christianity with Jewish 
doctrines. 

The devout Christian philosopher, in accepting Jesus, 
sees that he must accept his condemnation of Moses. 
He can not be a Jew, and hate his enemies, and at the 
same time be a Christian, and love them. 


DO ANCIENT METAPHORICAL INTERPRETATIONS 
JUSTIFY REVIEW BY MODERN INTELLIGENCE? 

We have thus presented sufficient evidence from the 
Scriptures of our religion to show that there is reasona¬ 
ble justification for the review of dogmas which this age 
does nQt find acceptable, and which grow more and 
more in doubt and unbelief as educated reason investi¬ 
gates them. 

Is it the part of wisdom for tjie Church to lead in this 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EYIL. 201 


matter ? The public would be content to accept from 
the Church such safe installments of correction as would 
not endanger it. If the host of enlightened and quick¬ 
ened minds now coming amongst us, with the natural 
craving for a religious faith which will commend itself 
to general belief instead of general infidelity, be driven 
to help themselves, there would be results more radical 
than convenient. We were educated in the strictest 
school of theology. Our counsel is in the interest of 
the Church, and for the good of souls. There is one 
marked instance of abandonment by the Church of a 
dogma that has outgrown belief, to show that the 
Church has done such things before. 

Hell, as a literal place of physical and eternal tor¬ 
ment, and as a final winding-up of 44 our Father’s mercy 
and loving-kindness to his children,” had become so 
repugnant to general belief, that it has been tacitly 
dropped by the general pulpit of Christianity; while in 
our early life it formed the chief staple of our sermons. 
The Church might have saved itself from the violent 
revolution of Luther, and the slave States o’f America 
from ruin, by timely and moderate conception of vested 
rights to the clearly-marked requirements of enlight¬ 
ened progress. 

Let us not deceive ourselves: the miraculous march 
of progress will brook no obstacle; and the institution 
that resists it will court its own destruction. 


202 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


“ COURTS OF CONCILIATION.” 

In Paris, Courts of Conciliation are established by law, 
and a majority of the differences between tradesmen 
and mechanics are settled at one sitting. The loss of our 
note-book by theft, at the fire of the Cosmopolitan 
Hotel, San Francisco, obliges us to quote from memory. 
We believe that four-fifths of all the cases are settled 
thus amicably ; and, when appeal is made to other 
courts, the decisions are seldom reversed. 

It works this way in practice. The judges are re¬ 
tired men of long experience in trade. In a number of 
cases that we were permitted to hear, the contestants, 
without lawyers, witnesses, or oaths, stated their cases 
respectively, as a preliminary hearing. In most cases, 
the judge quickly discovered which party was wrong in 
his notions. In this case, he requested the other party 
to withdraw. Then he explained to the litigant the 
point of error, assured him he could not gain by going 
to more open litigation, and advised making terms with 
the opponent. In most of the cases, this preliminary 
became a final settlement: in very few cases, a re-hear¬ 
ing and witnesses were called for. 

Here is a lesson from which our religious and other 
societies may take example. 

If any religious society desires to surpass its rivals by 
doing good, by promoting harmony, and suppressing the 
evils of litigation, and its attendant animosity and un¬ 
charitableness, let it bind its members to this means of 
adjudicating and atoning differences. Let them dis- 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 203 


card law-books, and refer, as the Mohammedans do, to 
their Bible. In Christian Bibles, and in all others ex¬ 
cept that of the Jews, there is one law for all, “ Do unto 
others as you would they should do unto you ; ” and it 
is not doubted, that, as in Paris, competent men can be 
found to discern wisely the just application of that law 
of conciliation. 


MIRACLES. 

“ Signs and miracles diminish the merit of faith. It is servile hom¬ 
age that is paid to a doctrine on account of miracles. The free spirit 
surrenders only to the intrinsic force of truth.” — Mohammed. 

By reference to Exodus vii. and viii., it will be 
seen that there was an organized institution in Egypt, as 
in Hindostan, for instruction in the science of perform¬ 
ing miracles in order to prove religious profession. 
The professors were called magicians. 

The Mosaic record gives us a curious illustration of 
their power to work miracles. Moses was well versed 
in Egyptian science. In order to convince Pharaoh 
that the God of Moses was superior to the God of 
Egypt, the Almighty told Moses that Aaron should 
throw down his rod before the monarch, and it should 
become a serpent. 

But the magicians threw down many rods, and 
turned them also into serpents. Upon being informed 
of this failure, the Almighty sent him back to do another 
miracle, viz., to turn the waters of the river into blood, 
and kill the fish. But this miracle the magicians also 
did. A third time, God sent him back to cover the 


204 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


land and the interior of the houses with frogs. But 
again the magicians matched the miracle exactly! 
Though Aaron is said to have beaten the magicians at 
last upon a lesser kind of performance, the account is 
not calculated to exalt our faith in miracles as a proof 
of any religion; rather it makes us inclined the more to 
make it a test, that a religion shall be self-convincing, 
and above the aid of such questionable support from 
without. 

Devout philosophers make so many startling objec¬ 
tions to miracles, that a great deal of infidelity grows 
out of the supposition that the truth of the doctrines of 
Christianity rests upon the proof the recorded miracles 
supply. 

We hold this to be a great mistake. The truths of 
Christianity are sufficiently palpable to stand without 
aid of revelation or miracle. If this were not so, they 
would exhibit a point of weakness and insufficiency in¬ 
consistent with the character of everlasting truth. 

A miracle or a revelation may bring conviction of 
what, from its improbability, may require such means of 
proof; but its purpose ends with the person for whom 
it is done. If other persons are to be convinced, the 
same reason that made it necessary to do a miracle to 
enforce conviction of something incredible on the first 
person, makes it equally necessary for all others. And 
they should require it, because it has been pronounced 
of a nature not to be believed without. 

It must be considered that there is an immense differ¬ 
ence between seeing a miracle performed, and hearing 
that some one else is said to have seen it. Even if we 
find a person who himself avers that he saw a miracle, 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 205 


and we believe he is honest, we should think it neces¬ 
sary to make very minute investigation to satisfy our¬ 
selves that lie may not have been mistaken. A miracle 
to Peter and other disciples, we hear, was no miracle 
to Thomas. We hear of wonders and soothsayings 
now-a-days ; but, because they want antiquity, we smile 
incredulously: yet there is less reason to believe, just 
in proportion as antiquity removes them from notation. 

Suppose, however, we believe a man was present 
when he understood, or supposed he saw another, con¬ 
vert water into wine. Nothing else is proved by it 
than that single fact; especially if nothing is alleged 
as its purpose but to give some feasters more drink. 

The miracles of the New Testament, however, are 
not stated as facts by the writers who incorporate them 
in their narratives; but, as Luke says, they are given 
by some persons not named, who received them from 
some other persons also unnamed, as having been seen 
by some other persons also not named. 

Really our religion is competent to stand without the 
support of this kind of propping ; and we put it to all 
intelligent Christians whether it is prudent to quarrel 
with our neighbor about such a matter, or to refuse 
him religious fellowship because he believes in the doc¬ 
trines of Christ on account of their purity and high 
morality alone. 

The best way to make believers numerous, and to 
thin the ranks of infidelity, is to lop off from the re¬ 
quirements of faith whatever is not necessary to gain 
this desideratum. We may well sacrifice every non- 
essential doctrine, and concentrate our faith all the more 
securely on the rest. 


206 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


To awaken an interest for searching the Scriptures, 
and to enable the reader to meet the doubts of others, 
we will state some objections to miracles. 

Inasmuch as every religious founder before the time 
of Christ relied upon miracles to prove his mission 
(always including a miraculous conception by a virgin), 
inany pious Christians of every age of the Church have 
doubted that Jesus ever thus resorted to so close an 
imitation of known impostors. They have been obliged 
to consider these imitations as additions by his zealous 
biographers, who, comprehending the self-convincing 
power of his simple but sublime truths, conceived it 
would help the progress of Christian teaching to sprinkle 
it with the usual miracles. The character of Christ 
seems to many of his most devout admirers to be more 
homogeneous and consistent in the simplicity which was 
its leading attraction without miracles or metaphysica- 
tions. 

Had he been reliant upon miracles to prove that his 
mission was from God, it is hard to reconcile our reason 
—- it may be said incredible — to the striking fact, 
that he never once brought forward, nor mentioned, 
nor dropped a hint of, the first and greatest and most 
astounding miracle that first ushered him into the 
world, — his miraculous generation by the Holy Ghost 
in the body of a married woman. This alone would 
have sufficed for universal conviction without another 
miracle. His mother was about; but she was also 
silent on this great miracle : never a word escaped her 
lips on that subject to help her son’s mission. This 
fairly established a sound presumption that he was not a 
man for miracles; but that rather he considered his re- 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 207 


ligion as above the need of miracles. On the contrary, 
when asked to perform them for this purpose, he 
refused, saying, because they would not believe without, 
they should not have a miracle. It appears, indeed, in 
keeping with this declaration, that some of the miracles 
he did were performed for the gratification only of his 
followers who were already attached. The wine-mira¬ 
cle is an instance, all present being friends at a neigh¬ 
bor’s festive-board. 

If miracles were intended to make believers, it is 
reasonable to expect that they would be done so openly 
as to make the greatest number of believers; and the 
witnesses would have been selected calculated to give 
them greatest weight of testimony. 

This was far from being the case. The brothers of 
Jesus upbraided him for the secrecy of his alleged 
miracles, while he claimed to desire to be known openly. 
John vii. 3 and 5. 

In nothing do the evangelists show uncertainty so 
great as in their collections of miracles. Besides dis¬ 
crepancies in the details of those they unite in pre¬ 
senting as evidences of the mission of Christ, each 
presents some which are not indorsed by others, and 
therefore (we presume) not sufficiently authentic, or, 
at .any rate, not essential in his opinion as evidences of 
Christianity. John, for instance, presents at least six 
miracles (including the converting of water into wine, 
which he says was the first miracle, and raising Lazarus 
from the dead), which no other Gospel presents for our 
belief. In return, he does not indorse as gospel neces¬ 
sary to Christianity many more miracles of the others 
than they reject of his, including the miraculous con- 


208 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


ception story from beginning to end (in which rejection 
Mark joins him) ; the second miraculous feeding of four 
thousand persons (in which rejection Luke joins him) ; 
and the transfiguration, at which the others say John 
was present. This is more probably proof that John 
the evangelist was not John the disciple. 

The conclusion is warranted, that there was not such 
accord on the credibility of the miracles as to place 
them in the first class of evidences. If all four of the 
historians take the liberty of omitting some as not essen¬ 
tial, at least may not we be tolerant, each of his 
neighbor, and permit selection and rejection of any or 
all that are not deemed essential to our faith ? 


EVIDENCES OF MIRACLES. 

Our Gospels are but one part of the records of our 
religion. The same church which hands them down 
to us supplies us with a long chain of testimony regard¬ 
ing miracles, which are much better attested by actual 
vouchers who saw them. We have collected a few 
examples for instruction. 

As miracles thus form a continued chain of Christian 
evidences, vouched for by the Church, we can not select 
a few at the farthest end, which we can see the least 
clearly, and pronounce them only genuine because of 
their antiquity, and all the rest forgeries. 

Dr. Whitby, in examining the history of early Chris¬ 
tian evidences, says, 44 It is very remarkable that Papias 
a.d. 110, and Irenaeus a.d. 167, the two earliest fathers, 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 209 


have, on the credit of two idle reports, shamefully 
imposed upon us forgeries of false stories regarding 
things said and done by the apostles.’’ Thus near the 
fountain-head the stream becomes muddy. 

St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis (a.d. 368), declares, 
that, in imitation of the miracle of Cana in Galilee, seve¬ 
ral fountains and rivers in his day were annually con¬ 
verted into wine ; and that he himself drank of them. 

St. Chrysostom (a.d. 398) supplies books full of mira¬ 
cles wrought by the relics of dead saints. 

St. Jerome (a.d. 378) indorses St. Epiphanius, and 
defends the pious zeal of some whose miracles were 
exposed. 

St. Athanasius (326), to whom is attributed by 
Unitarian Christians the discovery of the Trinity, 
vouches for the following: “ The Devil called on St. 
Anthony the monk, to beg that the monks would not 
curse him as they had done ; because, since the increase 
of monasteries, and the spread of Christianity, his 
power was entirely taken away,” &c. The life of 
Anthony is full of miracles. 

St. Gregory (a.d. 370) of Nyssa says the Virgin 
Mary and John the Baptist appeared to Gregory Nazi- 
anzene (famous for miracles), and gave him a divine 
creed in which the Trinity was declared. This creed 
was written by the ghost of John, and was then pre¬ 
served in Gregory’s church. 

St. Austin (a.d. 396) leaves records of miracles by 
relics of saints that would fill an ordinary wheelbarrow. 

Gregory Nazianzene, St. Ambrosius, Lactantius, and 
Tertullian, all refer to the story of the fabulous phoenix 
having risen as proof of the resurrection. 

14 


210 


THE GOSPEL OP GOOD AND EVIL. 


The Church of Smyrna sent a circular to all the 
churches, giving an account to be strictly relied upon 
of the events connected with the martyrdom of Poly¬ 
carp (before 100). A voice from the clouds called to 
the saint to be firm. The fire formed an arch over him, 
and would not burn him. The executioner then thrust 
his sword in his side, from which sprang a dove, and a 
flow of blood that extinguished the fire, &c. The nar¬ 
rative ends abruptly by announcing, that at last the 
fire performed its functions, and the saint expired. 
This is one of the best authenticated miracles. 

Casting out devils had got to be so common at every 
street-corner, by heathens as well as Christians, that 
the Council of Laodicea (367) put a stop to it as bring¬ 
ing religion into contempt. 

Justin Martyr (a.d. 140), Cyprian (248), Amobius 
(303), Eusebius (315), Theodoret (425), may be 
added to the lists of saints who have left us evidence 
of any quantity of further miracles. 

St. Austin says, u on the authority of credible per¬ 
sons,’’ that St. John the apostle having always 
affirmed that Jesus promised him that he should not 
die until he had seen the second coming of Christ, his 
disciples affirmed, that, when John was buried, the 
ground kept rising and falling over the body as it 
breathed for a long period. 

The miracle of the cross of Constantine “ was seen 
by the whole army.” From that time until Luther, 
every Christian historian records oracles, prodigies, and 
miracles with the greatest attestations. 

The King’s Evil. — History records, that, from a.d. 
1660 to 1680, 92,107 persons afflicted with this disease 
were touched by Charles II., and cured miraculously. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 211 

The king laid his hands on the sick, and said, “ I 
touch: God heal; ” while the chaplain read the text,— 
“ He put his hands upon them, and he healed them.” 

The miracles of the Abbe de Paris in the seventeenth 
century were attested by the sworn signatures of thou¬ 
sands. He died in 1725. The government became 
alarmed at the multitudes that crowded his tomb giving 
sworn certificates of miraculous cures; and the tomb 
was walled in. 

Montegeron published a large quarto volume of these 
well-attested miracles. He dedicated it to the king, 
who received it from his hands with due ceremony. 
The same author made out three volumes more of 
miracles, with vouchers and affidavits annexed. 

The truth of the miracles, and the conversions 
effected, were attested by many eye-witnesses, by the 
principal physicians of France, by the highest clergy ; 
and a procSs verbal , certified by over twenty cures of 
parishes in Paris, was regularly presented to the arch¬ 
bishops, that they might be registered as lasting evi¬ 
dences, and be solemnly published as miracles placed 
beyond doubt or denial for the benefit of the faithful 
and for the confirmation of religion. 

If, on such testimony as the Church transmits through 
the Gospels, we believe the ancient miracles, how can 
we refuse credit to such testimony as we can thus 
almost lay our fingers on ? 

Yet we smile at these so well-attested miracles for 
the very reason that they are too near for belief. 

“ ’Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.” 

The existence of witches, or persons possessed of 


212 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


demons in the last century, is proved by evidence of 
courts, judges, lawyers, jurists, priests, and by the oaths 
of thousands of respectable witnesses at Salem, Mass., 
by the legislators who made laws to punish them ; and 
yet, now-a-days, every man knows that it was an illu¬ 
sion which overcame a whole people, and frenzied them 
to a pitch that led multitudes to look with pious satisfac¬ 
tion on the burning of innocent women as witches, 
which the Bible taught them to believe in. 

To this day the Catholic Church continues to add 
new links to the long chain of miracles. 

The blood of St. Januarius. — We have seen this 
affair, and can describe it. 

The head of this saint and martyr is deposited in a 
silver half-statue, richly gilt; and the two phials con¬ 
taining his congealed blood are enclosed in a separate 
tabernacle of white marble in the chapel of II Teseno 
at Naples. The phials are sealed, and immovably fixed 
in a beautiful ostensorium. The keys are kept, — one 
by the Bishop of Naples, the other by a deputation of 
nobles, per agreement made in the time of Innocent X. 
The officiating priest appeals to the saint; and, if the 
reply is favorable, the saint indicates it by liquefying his 
blood. To satisfy unbelievers, a public examination 
was invited Aug. 21, 1754, by the cardinal archbishop 
of Naples. All the authorities of the cathedral, some 
thousands of persons, and a deputation of twelve nobles, 
attended. And the miracle was attested by the oaths 
of all these high personages, and of a large number of 
persons eminent for their piety, and known to the 
world; 

This miracle has been performed annually since, and 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 213 


similarly attested. When Napoleon I. was in Naples, 
the priests gave out that St. Januarius was against 
him. He is said to have sent them word that “ if the 
saint will not liquefy his blood, I will dry up yours.” 
This is said to have produced a miraculous liquefaction. 
The secret is probably a chemical substance, which, by 
a moderate application of heat, becomes fluid; and the 
justification is, that miracles revive and strengthen faith. 

Though thus attested by so much more convincing 
evidence than those of our antiquity, no Christian out¬ 
side the Catholic Church gives faith to these miracles, 
because they are not mouldy enough: they are only 
modern stuff. 

To supply the miracles for a new religion, so far from 
being difficult, is the easiest part of all. Mohammed 
never pretended to miracles. Like Jesus, he trusted to 
the intrinsic superiority of his doctrines. Both of them 
clearly thus expressed themselves. Neither of them 
left any written gospels. 

The followers of Mohammed, in writing his gospels, 
supplied a stuffing of miracles, under the impression 
that these would help them to win converts in the 
absence of that talent and magnetic power of address 
which inspired their great master. And the earliest 
writers of Christianity, as well as later ecclesiastical 
historians, say that they only followed our example. 


214 


THE GOSPEL' OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


HOW A MIRACLE GAINS REPORT 

“ The flying rumors gathered as they rolled. 

Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told. 

And all who told it added something new ; 

And all who heard it added something too. 

On every ear it spread ; on every ear it grew.” 

John iv. 29 furnishes an example of the exaggera¬ 
tions of such reporters as Luke says he is indebted to 
for his gospel records. We see how vast are the pro¬ 
portions a miracle attains in the very first hands, and 
how the fiction avails for the credulous multitude. 

At the great gathering-place of the gossipers (in 
ancient as in modern times), — a village well,—a Sa¬ 
maritan woman, who had lived with five husbands, and 
was then mistress to a sixth man, was drawing water as 
usual. If such a woman’s history was not known to 
every one in that neighborhood, it will form a singular 
exception to a universal law. Jesus asked her to call 
her husband. She said she had none. Then Jesus 
said he knew the man was not her lawful husband, and 
he also knew that she had five husbands in her time. 
She said, “ Sir, I perceive you are a prophet.” Nothing 
in his reply indicates that he spoke from any miraculous 
knowledge on a matter of certainly public notoriety. 
But the woman went forth with a big story: u Come 
see a man that told me all things which ever I did. Is 
not this the Christ ? ” And many believed him for 
this saying of the woman : “ He told me all things that 
ever I did ” (v. 39). 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 215 


This instance warrants the application to every mira¬ 
cle that is of record ; for human nature is ever the same. 
It is a law of humanity to make a marvel of what it 
can, and to give it coloring on every new rehearsal. 
Here is a dubious miracle believed on the mere word of 
an abandoned woman. But we have also, among many, 
an instance in which Jesus was misunderstood, and not 
understood at all; a marked instance in which the apos¬ 
tles themselves, in their usual misapprehension, spread 
about a misrepresentation of the freshly-uttered words 
of their Master (John xxi. 28). 

These examples are sufficient to show that reason and 
the rules of evidence should accompany investigation in 
religion as well as in all other directions. 


ANALYSIS OF A MIRACLE. 

We speak of miracles so lightly, that it may serve to 
give us a new and richer appreciation if we examine in 
detail the atomic elements that are required to make up 
the structure of one. 

Let us take one of the few miracles which the four 
evangelists unite in recording, — the five loaves and five 
fishes, and the about five thousand persons that were 
fed, and the u besides women and children ” of Matthew. 

It may be noted that the expressed object of this 
great compound mass of miracles, usually regarded as a 
single performance, was not to prove any doctrine, but 
to feed the people. 

Nor was there urgency for it on that score; because, 


216 


THE GOSPEL OP GOOD AND EVIL. 


1st, The disciples intimated that there was food enough 
in the neighborhood, and, if the people were dismissed, 
they would provide themselves with it. 2dly, They 
would not have suffered much by the privation of a 
single meal till they could reach their homes. 

It will be thought not unreasonable to expect that so 
stupendous an exercise of power, which required a dis¬ 
turbance of the laws of the universe (established to 
govern all reproduction of living forms), would only be 
resorted to on occasions of momentous urgency, beyond 
the reach of natural means of relief. 

We shall run into trouble if we assume, that, while 
there was plenty of natural food around, God began a 
new extempore creation; for our faith is pledged to 
believe that work was determinately finished and per¬ 
fected long time ago, and that to the fish was assigned 
the duty and the power of reproducing their species. 
It is not to be presumed that they had failed in this 
duty, that fish were not existing in plenty. But it is 
to be understood by the terms of the narrative that 
the fish thus formed by a new act of creation were 
exactly the same kind as those already on hand, and 
not any new kind ; that is, natural fish made by unnat¬ 
ural means, which involves an awkward contradiction 
to the philosophic mind. 

It is easy to say he multiplied so many loaves from 
five, and so many fishes from two small ones; say one 
thousand and three thousand respectively. But, resolve 
it in any way possible, it comes to this, that neither 
the five loaves nor the two fishes could in the least con¬ 
tribute to produce any other loaves or fishes (as the 
story seems to intimate) ; for the lifeless elements in 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 217 


their composition were necessarily bound up in their 
own existence. These multiplied loaves and fishes 
must, then, have been an entirely new creation ; or 
they must have been obtained from supplies existing 
somewhere. 

As the narrative reads, both the loaves and the fishes 
were in a state for immediate eating; that is, cooked in 
whatever form. 

Now, a creation of living fish and plants we have 
reconciled our minds to; but a new creation of dead, 
drawn, and ready-cooked fishes, makes exorbitant de¬ 
mands upon human reasoning. Then we have twelve 
baskets of miraculous rubbish! surplus and waste of 
miraculous manufacture; not needful for the alleged 
purpose, and of no value beyond the refuse of the natu¬ 
ral loaves and fishes with which it was indiscriminately 
mixed up, and not esteemed enough to be eagerly seized 
and preserved as sacred memorials by the communi¬ 
cants. Nor did it seem that any one cared to get the 
miraculous in preference to the natural loaves and fishes. 

Surely, if such astounding a mass of miracles were 
enacted by Heaven, or by man or demon, before any 
five thousand men of this age, besides women and 
children, not only would there have been no fragments, 
but there would have been a struggle for relics, of 
such terrible proportions as would have left not a vestige 
to be gleaned. And no secular historian could have 
possibly omitted it from his records, as they all do. 

Had it not been for the fragments recorded, we might 
have supposed that the fishes miraculously made were 
so far unlike the natural as to have no heads or bones, 
scales, teeth, entrails, eyes, fins, brains, tails, and so 


218 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


forth ; because these are only essential to living fish, 
while for feeding men they are the reverse of useful. 

After the manner of human judgment (and that is 
what is appealed to), the miracle would have been more 
perfect for the purpose if the meat of fish had been 
created without the rubbish annexed; for it looks too 
like what is natural. 

If, to escape these difficulties, we suppose the fish 
came up miraculously from the sea, and suddenly cooked 
themselves, and the loaves came from the granaries of 
some dealers, and ground and baked themselves, or were 
taken from the baker’s ovens, we shall emasculate the 
miracle, and reduce it to a poetical account of a natural 
process, as Moses striking the rock for water is rendered 
by many commentators. 

Had we designed a miracle which should be most con¬ 
vincing, instead of least striking, we should have created 
something new to them ; something not plenty there¬ 
abouts at least. Fish was only too common. The lake 
at their feet was full of such fish ; and the friends around 
him were fishermen, from whom they got fish every 
day, just like those produced on this occasion. Then 
there appears to have been plenty of fish-baskets up on 
that mountain, and some had fish in when they went 
up. How came any there, if they were not carried up 
hill ? Evidently they were full. And it is equally 
evident that the narrators err in saying that twelve 
baskets sufficed to hold the fragments of a meal for five 
thousand men, besides women and children, so that 
nothing was lost. 

We suggest that some unknown meat and fruit, and 
wheaten bread, would have better answered, instead of 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 219 


familiar every-day barley loaves and fishes, so like natu¬ 
ral as to have no appearance of being miraculous, and 
no refuse miraculous waste, so like the waste of com¬ 
mon stuff. 

We have a guide to correct the numbers said to be 
entertained. The disciples said that two hundred pen¬ 
nies’ worth of bread would feed all there were. A 
penny went far, doubtless, in those days ; but we should 
not suppose far enough to feed five thousand besides 
women and children, say six thousand mouths, equal to 
one-thirtieth of a penny each. 

It is noteworthy, that, whenever this miracle is re¬ 
ferred to afterwards, it is only claimed for the loaves, 
and not the fishes. There is an apparent rehearsal of 
this miracle, but claimed to be a second miracle, and 
only given by two evangelists. 

The other loaves-and-fishes miracles (Mark viii., and 
Matthew xv. 82, not indorsed by Luke nor John) says 
the multitude was about four thousand; “ besides women 
and children ” being added by the same evangelist who 
adds it to the first loaf-and-fish miracle. 

And it is stated that this multitude had been with him 
three days in the wilderness without any food, and, of 
course, without shelter. 

This but adds another mountain of improbability; 
and, if we admit women and children, the story becomes 
quite incredible. 

Immediately after this miracle, as in the former, these 
two evangelists sent Jesus and his disciples into a ship; 
one sending him to Magdala, the other to Dalmanutha. 


220 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


*■ 


AN EVER-LIVING MIRACLE. 

It is not only a doctrine of the Old and New Testa¬ 
ment, but a well-established fact in science, that one 
of the most powerful agents of Providence is moral 
delusion. 

History abounds in instances of great national delu¬ 
sions ; and we have thousands of instances in our medi¬ 
cal books of individual hallucination, where sincerity was 
not questioned. Men of known purity of life have 
fancied that they were Jesus Christ, that they were 
sent to save his religion from corruption, that they saw 
miracles, and had converse with God. 

Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, no doubt truly 
believed in all he described touching his visit to heaven. 
The purity of his life, the wisdom of his moral instruc¬ 
tion, and the success of his religion in promoting piety 
and good works, give us every reason to credit his 
sincerity. The same reason applies to the vision of 
Paul. His disturbed mind may have been converted 
by the effects of what to other persons was a thunder¬ 
storm : as we are informed in the Testament, that on an 
occasion the people were divided ; some hearing a voice, 
while others only heard ordinary thunder. So, upon 
many other occasions, some saw a miracle, some doubted, 
and some saw that there was nothing miraculous. 
“ They did not consider the miracle of the loaves.” 
This doubt is so often repeated, the brothers of .Jesus 
and the disciples themselves being also unbelieving, that 
we are disposed to bring it within the established law 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 221 


(which saves us from the objection of violation of the 
fixed laws) by assuming, that, belief in miracles being 
alone sufficient, a delusion may have been sent instead 
of a miracle. Certainly it is not miracles, but only a 
belief in them, that has been used for eighteen hun¬ 
dred years for the establishment of Christianity. And 
if this belief of some, while other spectators doubted, 
and some again denied, has proved sufficient for the 
purpose of future millions, whether the parties believ¬ 
ing, or those who disbelieved, were the more correct, 
is a matter of no real consequence. For reasoning 
minds, the great moral doctrines have always been 
their own sufficient witnesses; while for unreason¬ 
ing people, who can only be dominated by supernatu¬ 
ral proofs, which now-a-days are not given, it is an eco¬ 
nomic arrangement, and full of wisdom, that easy faith 
is sent to the lowly, to believe that miracles were done 
for others long ago, and to be content not to ask for the 
same actual proof for themselves ; that though miracles 
formed a necessary element of the first growth of 
Christianity, nevertheless Christianity went on growing 
after dropping this one active element for ever out of 
its composition. 

This singular divorce of its original elements, itself 
miraculous as any thing recorded, would not be necessi¬ 
tated, if we adopt the assumption that the easy belief 
of supernatural things for the unthinking was an ori¬ 
ginal element of its first composition and growth, and 
has been consistently a part of its nature ever since ; 
growing ever with its growth from the first. 

To the philosophic mind, the miracles we have handed 
down to us are nothing in the balance, compared 


222 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


with the miraculous credulity they command from 
millions, who, on such evidence, would not admit a 
temporal claim of sixpence on their purse; nor would 
any court, or any judge, or any jury enforce it. But 
as it only concerns their souls and their eternal welfare, 
their salvation from spiritual ruin, they give it easy 
faith, and do not care to look into it for themselves. 
The miracle is doubled when we see credulity persecut¬ 
ing others for not believing, because their enlightened 
faith in Christ’s doctrines has no need of long-ago mira¬ 
cles done to convince an ignorant people, who could 
not appreciate their intrinsic excellence. 

The greater the delusion, the greater the miracle, 
and the more we have to admire this economical contriv¬ 
ance of Providence for the moral government of man¬ 
kind in the ages of general ignorance and superstitious 
requirements. 

This intelligent age is capable of appreciating the 
doctrines of Christ much better if they are put upon 
their intrinsic excellence alone. To sound minds, it is 
casting doubt to proffer miraculous stories in proof of 
what proves itself. It is offering to gild our golden 
guineas. It only raises suspicion of their intrinsic 
value. 

Instead of ruling out of Christian fellowship those 
who reject the miracles, as to them an obstacle instead 
of an aid to faith, let us award a higher merit to that 
faith which accepts the words of our Saviour, asking no 
miracle to give assurance of their truth before accepta¬ 
tion. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 223 


MIRACLES, ACCORDING TO THE EVIDENCES OF 
THE GOSPELS, OF CHRIST HIMSELF AND HIS 
DISCIPLES DURING HIS LIFETIME, AND BY THE 
APOSTLES AFTERWARDS. 

The Gospels record repeated instances of the failure 
of miracles to convert the people for whom they were 
performed. John felt called upon to make an apology 
or explanation of this singular waste of miracle power, 
and for the unsatisfactory verdict of the spectators in 
condemnation of the performances, as being (we must 
infer) no miracles. 

His excuse is, however, really very awkward. He 
says that their unbelief was necessary in order that a 
prophecy of Esaias (in no way applicable) should be 
fulfilled (John xii. 37, &c.). 

We may at least ask as an indispensable preliminary 
to our belief in the astounding miracles of the loaves and 
fishes, that the multitude for whom and before whom 
they were performed were themselves believers and 
made converts. If they pronounced against the. per¬ 
formance being miraculous, can we be asked to believe ? 
At least, we may require to be assured that the disci¬ 
ples, in whose hands the miraculous loaves and fishes 
were produced and bandied, were fully and lastingly 
impressed with the astounding miracles. 

How many Christians read their Scripture enough to 
know, that, so far from being converted by these great 
miracles, the very same people, on the morrow, pro¬ 
claimed that Jesus had never yet done any miracles, 


224 ' 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AUD EVIL. 


taunted him with his inferiority to Moses, who, when 
their forefathers hungered, fed them miraculously with 
manna, and called upon Jesus to give a sign equal to 
that ? (John vi. 25-33.) 

To this Jesus replied by averring that Moses did no 
such miracle, nor would he do a miracle. He tells that 
the only bread which he had to give is spiritual bread ; 
and he complains that they ate up his dinner yesterday, 
but did not acknowledge that there was any miracle in 
the matter. 

The narrative informs us also, that the very disciples 
from whose hands the sacred unction of the miraculous 
food was scarce yet removed were upbraided by Jesus 
for not appreciating, for forgetting, not understanding, 
“ not considering ” the miracle (Mark vi. 52). At¬ 
tributes this to the hardness of their hearts. See also 
Mark viii. 17, &c. ; Matt. xvi. 9, 10. 

* And, to crown all, John (vi. 66) says that these very 
disciples (compare ver. 26) were so displeased with Jesus 
and the whole performance, that they turned their backs 
upon him, and abandoned him altogether. 

Another miracle of the same kind, told only by two 
evangelists, results in a similar way; and it is curious, 
that, when Jesus refers to these miracles, he, in regard 
to each, claims that the miracle extends only to the* 
loaves, omitting the fishes (Matt. xvi. 9, 10; Mark 
viii. 19, 20 ; John vi. 26). And, indeed, immediately 
after the alleged second miracle, Jesus particularly dis¬ 
claimed the performance of any miracle; saying that it 
was not his mission to give signs, and that he would not 
give any to this generation. The same is intimated 
after the first as well. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 225 


The alleged miracles are entirely incompatible with 
this repeated annunciation that he would not perform 
any for this generation. 

Moreover, this firm enunciation is attested by being 
mentioned six times; four in general terms, and two in 
especial refusals, which is stronger than any other alle¬ 
gation in the the Scriptures. 

It has, on this account, the appearance of being of the* 
original text; and whatever is in contradiction savors 
of doubtful authority, especially when the text charges 
that the disciples themselves held them to be of no ac¬ 
count. 

We have, moreover, a great many private miracles, 
the purpose of which is hard to define, which Jesus 
enjoined upon the recipients that they should keep 
secret. 

How they came to be divulged is not stated. 

The very great miracle of the transfiguration was a 
strictly private affair, performed only before three of 
his disciples, who did not need it for their conversion, 
and who, by his command, kept it secret even from their 
fellow-disciples till some time after his death. These 
miracles, as well as those great compound miracles 
of the loaves and fishes, the miraculous conception, 
which was not made known by Jesus, and enough of 
others to form in all the largest bulk and the most 
astounding of his miracles, appear, therefore, by the 
record, to have been of no effect towards their alleged 
general purpose of establishing a belief in his mission, 
or of converting those- before whom they were per¬ 
formed. 

Then, again, we find, that, in all their preaching in the 

15 


226 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


epistles, the apostles who succeeded Christ never nar¬ 
rated one of all these miracles. 

So that, besides the probability of their not being 
known at that period, it indicates clearly, that, to incul¬ 
cate a belief in the doctrines of Christianity, the mira¬ 
cles were not then, and therefore should not now be, 
held to be either necessary or desirable. 


THE COSMOGONY OF GENESIS. 

“ The Gospel of Good and Evil ” sufficiently proves 
that we misapprehend and misinterpret the beautiful 
allegory of the fall of man in the Book of Genesis. 

It is easy to find a more rational interpretation, which 
will show that a truthful picture was intended of some 
leading law of cosmical development, and of human 
progress. The original was doubtless hieroglyphic, and 
like many of the forms, ceremonies, and moral aphorisms 
of the Israelites, it was adopted from Egypt. The two 
accounts of creation in the 1st and 2d chapters vary 
from each other, and both have such want of accord 
with modern discoveries as may be honestly referred 
to hieroglyphic obscurity. Astronomy was too well 
advanced in Egypt before Moses, to permit us to sup¬ 
pose such a puerile mistake as that our little planet is 
the grand central object and purport of creation, and 
that the myriads of suns in space were made only to 
give light to this insignificant globe. 

The legend of our first parents was drawn from the 
same source, as the connected narrative shows; and it 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 227 


would be yet more wonderful if the same interpreter 
were not also mistaken in his interpretation of the 
hieroglyphical picture. If we read it rightly, we shall 
find in the legend of our first parents a beautiful alle¬ 
gory, that has served as a capital put-off till the human 
mind should be matured for the true explication of 
the origin of evil, not here alone, but everywhere in the 
realms of the Great Creator; as, by the text itself, the 
Evil Spirit was in Eden contemporaneously with Adam, 
and before what we call the first evil. 

The allegory plainly represents the stages of human 
life from infancy to manhood. It teaches that all crea¬ 
tions follow certain types, to which each and all have 
relationship. So man is a type, however far removed, 
of his Maker. “ In the image of God created he 
them ” (viz., Adam and Eve) would be devoid of sense 
in any other meaning, unless male and female deities 
be admitted. 

Youth is represented as two persons of opposite sexes 
dwelling in the paradise of a paternal home. The trees 
of life, and of knowledge of good and evil, are very 
delicate expressions that are made unmistakable in con¬ 
nection with injunctions against familiarity in that direc¬ 
tion, and threats only too natural, viz., the day you do 
this thing, you will be cast out upon the world to earn 
amid thorns and briers, and in the sweat of your brow, 
the bread now so easily provided in the parental home. 
To your parents you will be as dead thereafter. 

The female reaches puberty first. Nature, the irre¬ 
sistible serpent, first addresses her. Something occurs. 
A delicacy before unknown suggests clothing. How 
natural in this connection only! Perceiving this, the 


228 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND £VIL. 


parent knew it all. Behold! they become like us, 
parents. They are sent away with hard predictions of 
the pains of parturition, and of toiling for subsistence. 
The usual guard that young people find now-a-days 
around the tree of life, the parental treasure, is well 
illustrated by a two-edged sword of flaming fire. 

By the context, it is plainly shown, that the young 
people were not responsible, and therefore not wilful 
sinners. When the act was done, they did not u know 
good from evil,” and there was no sin to transmit for 
retribution to their descendants, even if it were not in 
any aspect too trifling a cause for the immensity of the 
resultant misery we affect to believe it engendered. 
Instead of remedying the evil, we make the Creator 
take the greatest care to extend and perpetuate its 
growth to his own everlasting and ever-increasing dis¬ 
pleasure. 

The interpretation savors of man’s errant brain, and 
not of the providence, of the wisdom and beneficence, 
of our good Parent the Almighty Ruler of myriads of 
suns, and ten thousand myriads of worlds, that people 
space like ourselves. 


THE MIRACULOUS CONCEPTIONS. „ 

There is nothing in the history of Christianity that is 
so incredible to Israelites, Mohammedans, and others to 
whom we present our religion, as the varied stories in 
Matthew and Luke about the miraculous conception. 
It is a stumbling-block in our progress of conversion. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 229 


The command was peremptory to spread the gospel: 
but the gospel which the apostles spread had no such 
strain upon credulity; for, in all their doctrinal epistles, 
not a word of it is found, nor a hint. 

In all that Jesus advanced in evidence of his claim 
to being intrusted by God with his mission, he never 
once mentioned this, the strongest of all proofs. How 
is it that we make it the very corner-stone of our re¬ 
ligion when he never gave us authority to do so ? when 
he never taught it, nor did any of his disciples ? Does 
it not seem to admit that Jesus adduced insufficient 
evidence of his claim, and some one thought it necessary 
to give us supplementary proof? Is it not singular that 
it should be left for a supplement to declare the strongest 
evidence of all ? How could Mark or John refuse to 
indorse it? especially John, whose gospel is later than 
all others ? The presumption is fair that it was not in 
any extant gospel when Mark wrote, nor in John’s 
time ; or that, if it was, they rejected it as not authentic. 

It must strike every one as inconsistent that neither 
Matthew nor Luke contains a word of reference to this 
great miracle in any part of their gospels, after its first 
narration. 

It is also remarkable, that, if we omit the first two 
chapters of Matthew and Luke, the three synoptic Gos¬ 
pels would begin at the same starting-point, viz., the 
advent of John the Baptist, as does also John with 
some metaphysical preliminaries; so that, if from the 
two Gospels we cut off the whole story of the miracu¬ 
lous conception, all four narratives will be synchronous 
and parallel ; which they are not as we have them. 

It is also notable that Mark tells us the gospel of 


230 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


Jesus Christ begins with the preaching of John the 
Baptist, the precursor of Christ. We are to infer that 
whatever transpired in the life of Jesus before that 
time is not a part of the gospel. 

Jesus himself never referred to any thing antecedent, 
but spoke only of this period as the beginning of his 
ministry. 

Even in Luke’s introductory, he says what he 
narrates is regarding the tilings which several others 
had already narrated, who were from the beginning (of 
the ministry) ministers of the word, and who saw every 
thing with their own eyes ; and that he had informed 
himself exactly from the beginning (of the ministry). 

From this review, it seems that many things pointing 
in one direction render it probable : — 

1st, That the gospel proper began in those days, as 
Mark says, with the public advent of John the Baptist. 

2d, That, when Mark wrote, no gospel went back of 
that period. 

3d, That Matthew and Luke each originally began 
with what is now chapter third; and that the first two 
chapters in each are supplementary by other hands. 

4th, Consistency obliges us to admit that the eye¬ 
witnesses from the beginning of the ministry did not see 
with their own eyes the miraculous conception, nor 
were they present at the interview between the angel 
and Mary, and so forth ; also that their first knowledge 
of Jesus was when they were first called to the minis¬ 
try. 

5th, These terms seem to be limitations which Luke 
set to his narrative and to his range of inquiry, as they 
certainly are to all the narratives by persons who pre- 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 231 


ceded him, and to whom he refers; Matthew’s narra¬ 
tive being one of them, for its accepted date is earlier 
than Luke’s. If he had seen what is now on the lead 
of Matthew’s narrative, he has so pruned and changed, 
that each throws discredit on the other. 

Looking upon the miraculous conception as a doctrine 
injurious now to Christianity, though it may have been 
beneficial at the period of its annexation, we present 
a comparison of the two stories, with a review of the 
probabilities of their being authentic. 

It may he mentioned here that Christian writers have 
shown that Marcion’s copy of Luke, used in churches 
in the second century, had not what now form the first 
two chapters of our version. Its first chapter is now 
our third. It is also shown, that, if Jesus conipleted 
his thirtieth year in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, 
Herod, to whom Luke in the first chapter assigns so 
notable a part, would have been dead two years before; 
a discrepancy which Luke would not have made. 

In the great controversies between Justin Martyr 
and the opponents of Christianity in a.d. 160, and in 
many others after that date, every text of Scripture 
was used that went to prove the divine mission of 
Jesus; but his miraculous conception does not appear 
to have been mentioned, which can not be accounted 
for, except by the fact that it was not gospel at that 
time. 

If the weight of evidence in examining the narratives 
be as strong against the authenticity as what is already 
adduced, and if the reason of this age is offended by 
this dogma, it is humbly suggested that it will be profit¬ 
able to consider the policy of absolving Christians from 


232 THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

insisting on the doctrine of the miraculous conception 
as binding on the conscience of Christendom. 

It is true we make out other dogmas from single 
texts not sustained by other evidence; but, in one of 
this fundamental importance, we should be permitted to 
require strict agreement and the concurrent testimony 
of all the evangelists. 

No stronger proofs can be given of the inefficiency 
of the alleged miracles, or, perhaps, of the improbability 
of there having been any attempt to do any, than the 
plainly-stated fact that his own parents and brothers 
and sisters, who knew especially his miraculous concep¬ 
tion, if true, did not believe in his pretensions at all; 
and his brothers, hearing of miracles, called on him to 
let them see one, which he declined. Is it possible that 
he desired to exclude from salvation his own family? 
If they leave us this, their testimony against the miracle 
of conception especially, we may excuse one another 
for being influenced by their testimony. Is it not the 
strongest we have ? 


INSTINCT AND REASON. 

“ Nature 

Counts nothing that she meets with base, 

But lives and loves in every thing.” 

Rbason is educated instinct. 

Man, in his pride, thinks he exalts himself by affirming 
that he alone has powers of reasoning. “ Instinct ” is a 
word invented for the brain-work of animals, and 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 233 


“ reason ” is the word for the like production of his own 
brain, — not always superior. 

This conceit is the parent of much evil treatment 
towards inferior beings whom it has pleased God to 
endow with the same organs exactly, and with co-tenancy 
and dominion over the earth and its productions. 

If it humble us to show we are not the only reasoning 
beings, it gives higher appreciation of our joint Creator’s 
works, and renders only justice to him, if it can be 
shown. that the number of intelligent beings on the 
earth is many thousand-fold greater than we have 
given him credit for. 

Instinct is brain-work, as reason is. All brains in 
animals and in men are composed of the same curious¬ 
ly convoluted medullary substance ; they have the same 
duplex organs, (male and female generators of thought ?) 
the same division into fore and aft hemispheres, the 
same connection with every part of the body through 
the telegraphy of the spinal chord and its thousand 
sub-conductors, the same senses and the same organs 
carrying to and fro intelligent reports and mandates, 
and similar members to serve their several purposes. 
The brain is generated from parents in the same way, 
and is similarly affected by passion, love, friendship, 
sympathy, jealousy, emulation, anger, joy, and the 
like. 

Intoxicating liquor and gastronomy act similarly on 
man, monkey, dog, fowl, and others, curiously changing 
the brain-work, as well as the general physique. 

It is through the slightly-varying constructions of 
their brain that animals get their distinctive dispositions, 
tastes, and propensities, as with man. When man tastes, 


234 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


and dogs smell, each is gathering report for the brain, 
where decision is made and execution ordered. When 
the merchant schemes, and the spider makes his snare, 
it is alike cogitation of brain-work, directing the venture, 
and promising reward. 

In each and all it is a piece of perfect machinery, 
producing results differing only as one watch differs 
from another. One watch may indicate the hours, 
another the minutes, a third the seconds, a fourth the 
days of the month, and so forth. One may be more 
complex, and of higher value; but it is only an added 
wheel or two to the same essential machinery: one 
power winds them, and one principle guides their move¬ 
ments. One speaks aloud the hour; another knows it, 
but is dumb. In each, the more complex, the more are 
the powers weakened by diffusion. Man, in having added 
organs, gains in one direction, and loses in another. He 
has not a single sense that is not excelled in animals, — 
the eagle’s eye, the dog’s scent, the hare’s ear, the 
spider’s touch, the bee’s taste, and we may mention 
many senses and attributes which in man’s brain are 
wanting, — their prescience of weather-changes, detec¬ 
tion of poison, the unerring guidance through track¬ 
less air and sea of migrating birds and fishes, and 
many more we might enumerate, that show superiority 
over our brain and its boasted perfection; for every 
faculty comes necessarily through the laboratory of 
the brain. 

Music in man is long labor of the brain with perfec¬ 
tion in none; and in most of us the faculty is absent. 
The songsters of the grove begin as we do, — small 
notes, and practice of brain and vocal organs. But 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 235 


how perfect their song ! — a false note never ; and every 
male of the kind is gifted with the charming faculty. 
We can not say music is not brain-work ; for the mock¬ 
ing-bird ( Caprimulgus vociferus ) attends, studies, makes 
effort, and succeeds by dint of brain-work ; and his de¬ 
light is to cajole the birds he imitates. 

When the beaver and the spider excite our admira¬ 
tion by their perfect construction ; when, after accidental 
breaking, we see them making a tour of inspection, 
planning and executing repairs with matchless skill, — we 
call it instinctive ingenuity; but ■ when the same talent 
is displayed by man, it is genius, and a high order of 
reasoning faculty. Yet we must at last refer both to the 
same Creator, manifesting the same skill through the 
same kind of brain-work in each alike. Let it be granted 
that man’s reasoning is higher in the scale, purer in the 
sum of its attributes, we can not fail on dissection to 
trace out, one by one, nearly every faculty of brain in 
animals, that goes to make up the mental manifestations 
of the average man. Take away from what we call 
reason in man every thing we call instinct in animals, 
and what would be left to substantiate the exclusiveness 
we claim ? Every faculty that has substantiality, that 
gives certain guidance, arid serves the real purposes of 
life, would be gone; and what would be left? Con¬ 
science and imagination, knowledge of good and evil, 
metaphysics, and high conceptions of a Supreme Being? 
If we could believe our dog has a conscience, that lie 
knows wrong from right, that he could be induced to 
goodness by hope of reward, and deterred from evil by 
fear of punishment, as man’s soul is taught and swayed 
by religion, we could scarcely deny him a soul of some 


236 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


sort. However inferior, these qualities, being our own 
claim to immortality, entitle the possessor, however 
humble, to immunity from extinction and annihila¬ 
tion. To deny this would be dangerous to our pre¬ 
tensions. 

Do animals imagine ? Our dog and our cat dream : 
therefore they imagine. They play fight, and regu¬ 
late their scratch and bite by a nice measure of reason 
and imagination. The stampede of wild cattle, the 
roadster’s night-scare at a white horse in pasture, the 
shying of your team, the watch and bark of our dog, 
all give proofs of active imagination. 

Our dog notes a fit of general ill-humor, and imagines 
we are offended at him. He notes in the evening our 
preparation for a hunt on the morrow, and his reason is 
as sharp as ours in making logical deductions from the 
premises. Premeditating, scheming, and lying in wait 
&re so common as not to need examples. They are 
proof of reason in man : why not in animals ? 

We have said reason is educated instinct. The new¬ 
born babe is all instinct, as we would say. Its mind, 
like its arms, is imbecile. It is only by educating in¬ 
stinct, which means undeveloped brain, that mothers of 
all animals and men gradually elevate it to reasoning; 
and it is the term of healthy growth of the brain, and 
of certain parts of it more than others, that determines 
the point of expansion. The brain of man has a longer 
period of growth, and, therefore, greater power of rea¬ 
soning. To every one of God’s creation is given 
exactly the proportion of reasoning power that is suita¬ 
ble to its condition. Man’s is more varied and diffused, 
that of animals is more concentrated; and the fewer 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 237 


faculties are compensated by their increased sharpness. 
It is so with us : — 

“ Dark night, that from the eye its function takes, 

The ear more quick of apprehension makes : 

Where’er it doth impair the seeing sense 

It pays the hearing double recompense.” — Shakspeare. 

The dog knows good from evil. He nas religion as 
we have. Man stands in the place of God to him. He 
knows and obeys the commandments of his lord better 
than we do. Here they are : — 

1. I am thy lord and master : thou shalt worship no 
other master. 

2. Watch my property. 

3. Come ever at my call, and obey my orders. 

4. Submit to restraint. 

5. Resent not chastisement. 

6. Thou shalt not steal. 

7. Thou shalt not murder my stock. 

8. Commit no nuisance. 

9. Stay out doors, and be content with thy kennel. 

10. Sacrifice thy life for thy lord. 

Another commandment: Thou shalt love thy master 
with all thy heart and all thy might, and his wife and 
children as himself. 

Will any Christian put his hand on his heart, lift his 
eyes to heaven, and dare compare his own obedience to 
his Master’s commandments with that of his dog’s ? 

Say you the dog has no conscience ? Mark him 
when arraigned for transgression. No Christian ever 
gave proof of being more conscience-stricken, more 
truly penitent, more humbly supplicant. “ Lord, be 


238 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


merciful to me a sinner! ” comes from his heart deeper 
than power of human utterance. 

The dog does believe in rewards and punishments, 
and as intelligently as we. It is on the certainty of 
this his belief, that w T e catechise him in our command¬ 
ments, that we punish his transgressions, and reward his 
obedience, to stimulate him by future fear of the one, 
and hope of the other. He is in advance of us in this, 
that his religion is not for Sunday; but liis devotion is 
daily, and never sleeping, and he has sense enough to 
see that it is his interest to be good. Unlike us, there¬ 
fore, his sins are few, and his virtues many. If we 
would study the workings of the dog’s every-day and 
practical religion, we might gather useful hints, — use¬ 
ful for reformation. 

“ The poor dog, man’s only constant friend, 

The first to welcome, foremost to defend ; 

Whose honest heart is all his master’s own; 

Who lives, moves, breathes, and thinks for him alone,— 
Unhonored falls, unnoticed all his worth, 

Denied in heaven the soul he has on earth.” — Byron. 


We dwell upon the dog because we know him best. 
But, in the view of our inquiry, we may assume that 
what the dog is all animals are. 

Does any one believe that all the high faculties we 
find in our dog turn to dust, and go into extinction ? It 
behooves us to pause before admission, lest we com¬ 
promise our own claims to soul and immortality 

God made us all, every living thing. And each 
was made to serve the purpose of his intention ; being 
all equally perfect, each for its object. The devout 
philosopher can not conceive that one class of beings, or 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 239 


one race of men, is more esteemed by the Creator than 
another ; especially that in the eye of God a good dog 
is not as precious for immortality as a bad man. Nor 
can we conceive that the dog’s superior fidelity is less 
worthy of having a soul to perpetuate virtues not 
inferior to ours. If his virtues die, ours are in danger. 
Did He, the Omnipotent and Immortal, ever create any 
thing that must not, therefore, live for ever? Being 
offspring of immortal parentage, how can it die ? 

If, by breathing life into man, man became thereby a 
living soul, how can we exclude other living beings into 
whom he likewise breathed life, else they would not 
have similar vital organs and processes and principles ? 
We hold it to be less an evil to elevate the standard of 
animals to the glory of the Creator than to gratify our 
own vanity by undervaluing other creations which God 
has sanctified by his creative blessing. And, further, 
we believe we rather greatly elevate ourselves when 
we can feel that we are not the lowest order of intel¬ 
ligences, not the bottom of all souls and immortalities, 
but high up in the scale, having many below us. 

The Hindoo derives from this belief great expansion 
of universal kindness, without one drawback ; and, if it 
be founded well, it may, under Providence, do needful 
betterment in Christendom. 


PRAYER. 

The prevailing theory of prayer is, that whatever we 
pray for God will grant, if it be good for us to make 
the concession. Granting that it is possible or probable 


240 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


that the fixed laws of the universe can be subject to a 
thousand million of daily disturbances, and that miracu¬ 
lous interferences can be made so common and so cheap, 
we question the benefit of giving for mere asking. This 
is the way we perpetuate beggary, by teaching the men¬ 
dicant to rely upon prayer instead of work. It is a law 
most admirable, that want shall compel men to exertion. 
The good things of earth, temporal and spiritual, are only 
well appreciated when they are earned. Live on six¬ 
pence a day, and earn it,” was Abernetliy’s answer to 
the prayer of a rich man in distress. Hercules an¬ 
swered the prayer of the stalled wagoner, “ Put your 
shoulder to the wheel, and Heaven will help you out of 
the mud.” 

There are means provided for obtaining what is possi¬ 
ble ; and, those means taken, the acquisition is certain. 
The greatest happiness of life is in the patient pursuit, 
and the consequent enjoyment, of acquisition. To grant 
special dispensations from this healthful and useful law 
would work only evil to mankind. The pernicious 
effects would be the same with spiritual gifts, if granted 
to prayer instead of to works to prepare the heart, as 
only it can be fitted, to receive and cherish them at their 
value. A change of heart can only come atom by atom, 
displacing the evil, and making new growth of good; 
and it is a necessity of spiritual permanency that it be 
the graduated reconstruction of earnest endeavor and 
practice of good works. Whatever help prayer may be 
supposed to effect, charity and good works make more 
sure, more healthy, and more permanent change of 
heart. 

' It is the sad experience of observing minds that they 


KELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 241 


who pray the most in words are far from giving most 
in charity. We would not be understood to deprecate 
prayer. What we suggest is prayer in a better form, 
for the success, as well the enduring good, of the prayer¬ 
ful. Prayer is the fertilizer of earnest effort. 

There is a moral atmosphere, unknown to chemistry, 
from which prayer extracts faith, that strengthens human 
endeavor; and this turns the force of circumstances to 
our purpose. In this way, prayer is self-answering and 
self-rewarding, as every thing else in Nature; which 
brings it within the domain of universal law, and releases 
it from all objections to the idea of special providences; 
giving to every applicant separate hearing, separate 
judgment, and special execution. This special plan is 
of impossible conception as a law of Providence, when 
we consider that it is to be applied to millions of worlds 
besides our own. 

How idly we pray in every Christian congregation 
to Him who has forbidden us to pray till every brother 
and every sister is first forgiven ! Are the Saviour’s 
words of no account, that we keep up this insulting 
mockery ? Whoso offers prayer, hating his brother, 
presents a poisoned chalice that will be returned to his 
own lips. 

Whoso condemns her sister prayeth with fetid breath 
to the averted face of heaven. It would be of great 
service to people who pray much, and pay high for sanc¬ 
tuary privileges, if we could persuade them to quit pray¬ 
ing for a month, and give their time and cost to seeking 
and relieving the poor and broken-hearted. They would 
find their change of heart so perfect, that they would 
not need word-prayers so long as they continue the 


242 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


prayer of good works. This kind of prayer ascends to 
Heaven, and brings unasked reward. 

There is a German church on Homshire Hill, in Penn¬ 
sylvania, to which is annexed a parsonage-farm so poor 
that successive pastors abandoned it. A young enthu¬ 
siast took the call, saying that prayer would make the 
grass grow. But it did not. At last, he was detected 
in carting manure upon it, and was accused of infidelity. 
u I have as much faith as ever,” he said, “ in prayer; 
but the ways of God are mysterious. For some hidden 
reason, it seems necessary to mix a little manure with 
the prayers.” 

We were present at a highly practical sermon on 
prayers for change of weather, from which we gathered 
a valuable lesson. It was harvest-time : the season had 
been dry, but symptoms of rain appeared. Among 
the slips of paper usually put on the pulpit to be read as 
notices, the pastor read one asking prayers for rain. 
This was signed by the village miller, whose grist was 
stopped; by several vegetable gardeners, and the like ; 
and a few women, probably in want of flour. Presently 
another paper turned up, being also a request for prayers 
that the Lord would be graciously pleased to grant a 
continuance of fine weather till the Lord’s people should 
secure the harvest. The pastor ran his eye over the 
signatures, and observed they were all farmers. It was 
then that he examined and announced who were the 
petitioners. The preacher, to whom all the petitioners 
were personally known, remarked that this was a dilem¬ 
ma, which, for the first time, brought to his mind a con¬ 
viction that not only would the Lord decline to change 
his well-founded laws, but that it was irreverent to ask 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 243 


it, as equivalent to an impeachment of the wisdom of 
those laws. He finished by saying, “ As one prays for 
wet, and another for dry weather, and both can not be 
served, I commend all parties to leave the arrangement 
to God, trusting, that, in the long-run, each will have 
his share of what is best for him. And let us join in 
prayer for light to understand, and thankful hearts to 
acknowledge, that God’s providence is better than man’s 
imaginings.” 

That there is an efficacy in prayer to nerve the falter¬ 
ing arm, and to awaken a trust which will sustain us 
under difficulties, is too well established to fear disturb¬ 
ance from this exposition of its too common misapplica¬ 
tion. But in no small proportion of our prayers for 
temporal, and probably for spiritual favors, if the Most 
High were to grant our cravings, so detailed, instead of 
letting us work out our own success by faithful endeavor 
and pious deeds, in lieu of good, evil would be our 
portion. 

A fashion prevails, which we fear is seldom sincere, 
of setting out our prayers by self-debasement, exagger¬ 
ated beyond our real convictions. 

Deacon Lander, a village shopkeeper in New Eng¬ 
land, and reputed to be as sharp at a trade as he was 
powerful in prayer, had some words with Deacon True¬ 
man about an alleged unfairness. In the evening, they 
met at the regular prayer-meeting. Deacon Lander, in 
his exordium, exhausted his vocabulary in self-debase¬ 
ment ; making himself out a very bad fellow. Deacon 
Trueman followed, with a high eulogium on his neigh¬ 
bor for the candor of his confession ; and he prayed to 
the Lord to give him the much-needed honesty and 


244 THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

grace he asked ftp*, when his prayer was suddenly cut 
short by a blow from Deacon Lander, who, between the 
mutual pommelings, let out as thus: — 

“ It is all very well to humble ourself before the 
Lord, in prayer; but I am a better man any day than 
you, and I hold myself second to no man in this village 
for honesty and pious example ! ” 

We often receive from outspoken childhood a true 
exhibition of motives which we try to hide from our 
own hearts. 

u Papa, please lend me your prayer-book.” 

“ My child, I want you to pray for yourself.” 

“ O papa ! I can’t. I don’t know what to pray for ; 
and ready-made prayers are so handy: a body has just 
got to read them off.” 

Reading a sermon composed in frigid calculation, in¬ 
stead of pouring out fervid words with inspired power 
to touch the heart, and convert the congregation, is dis¬ 
obedience to the illustrated commands of Christ. It is 
doing the worst we can, instead of the best, to propagate 
and enforce his gospel. 

But to go before our God, and expect his special in¬ 
terference to accommodate us, or even to listen for a 
moment to a man who takes a book of second-hand and 
borrowed prayers, that have been ding-donged in his 
ears, as from patent machinery, century after century, 
seems to be a mockery to Heaven. It seems to say to 
Heaven, “ Since you insist on prayer, there are so many 
of us that we have got a machine that saves us a deal 
of trouble. It makes one prayer serve for us and our 
children’s children. Admirable contrivance! How 
much more of it you get this way than by the meager 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 245 


prayer your Son taught us! But he was simple and 
illiterate: we are decked in gorgeous array, and full of 
book-learning. How much better our roundly-turned 
sentences, our impressive repetitions ! And behold the 
length of them! We beseech thee to give us according 
to their length and the well-studied diction of our best 
scholars! ” 

We do earnestly pray for reform in this matter. If 
our Saviour’s example be a command, or if we would 
show respect to his instructions, let us put heart, and not 
book parroting, into our prayers. Stammering words 
and rude speech, nay, even dumb aspirations, come they 
from the fullness of the heart, will reach Heaven, and 
find acceptance there, when cold and formal speech is 
scattered on the idle winds away. 

“ Fountain of mercy, whose pervading eye 
Can look within, and read what passes there, 

Accept my thoughts for thanks : I have no words. 

My soul, o’erfraught with gratitude, rejects 
The aid of language : Lord, behold my heart! ” 


THE DEITY. 

“ In contemplation of created things, 

By steps we may asftend to God.” 

The idea that the over-ruling power is a single person, 
having no companion of his kind, is nominally enter¬ 
tained by the religious creed of a large proportion of 
mankind. 

It is the nominal belief of Christians, Hindoos, Par- 


246 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


sees, and others; but in reality each of these, by an 
instinct common to all men, while holding to the theory 
of one God, appear to worship three. “ Three persons 
in one God,” said the Hindoos and the Egyptians 
before Moses; and “ three persons in one God,” say 
Christians now. 

It would indeed be strange if the great ruling princi¬ 
ple of male and female, and, from their union, progeny, 
which is the fundamental base of all life, should not be 
a type, however remote, of the great source of all this 
life. This faculty of generation by sexual union, which 
forms the joy and the bond of society, would seem to be 
a gift from the pre-exerting and everlasting attributes 
of the Deity itself; that is to say, every thing generated 
by the Deity is endowed with the capacity to continue 
that generation so as thereafter to multiply its kind 
without direct action of Deity; or, if you please, God, 
working through the agency of the parents, continually 
creates. In either case, the philosophic mind is led to 
presume a male and female principle as pervading the 
universe, and as having its great central source in the 
power that thus imparts of its own creative principle to 
the agents of production in every department. 

It is merely in empty words that we speak of the in¬ 
comparable happiness of the great solitary Being whose 
life has no companionship, except with creatures im¬ 
mensely below him. A solitary Being, whose occupation 
is to work unceasing in keeping in order ten thousand 
millions of suns with their planets and inhabitants, and 
who has no confidential, and, so to say, no conjugal com¬ 
panionship, can not be theorized into any sort of happi¬ 
ness of which the human mind can form a conception. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 247 

If we suppose three personal Gods, — any number above 
unity, — we can not rail at those who imagine that 
Deity consists of a vast race (so to say) of superior 
beings, inhabiting the suns, and thence directing their 
surrounding planets, while intercommunicating among 
themselves by a vast expanse of interlacing filaments. 

If personality (so to say) is to be attributed to Deity, 
omnipresence can only be supposed to mean thoroughly 
informed and thoroughly presiding by means (we will 
say) of the machinery of his government; for a per¬ 
sonality necessitates a separated something, and is a 
negation of a universally-diffused any thing. 

The difficulties and contradictions involved compel 
the philosophic mind to the conclusion that the human 
mind is not competent to penetrate nor to comprehend 
the mystery of God. The mind is a very small, very 
weak, and. most unreliable machine, prone to err, and 
especially easy to be deceived and misguided. A cer¬ 
tain spirit of inquiry could not probably have been 
given without its being turned to such subjects ; and 
the vague ideas that the world has so far been satisfied 
with bear every reasonable sign of being supplied ex¬ 
pressly to arrest the destructive strain which else would 
be fatal to man’s weak reasoning faculties. 

The deepest thinkers come to the conclusion that it is 
best to humbly admit the mystery of God to be beyond 
our comprehension; and that, for all purposes useful to 
us, the Great Spirit gives us inward revelations besides 
what is revealed in the vast works of creation. The 
wonder-working laws in daily activity should be studied 
by every devout Christian as indispensable aids to the 
most exalted conceptions of the power, the wisdom, and 
the glory of the Creator, 


248 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


PROPHECY. 

“ There is a history in all men’s lives 
Figuring the nature of the times deceased; 

The which observed, a man may prophesy 

With a near aim of the main chance of things 

As yet not come to life, which in their seeds 

And weak beginnings lie entreasured.” — Shakspeare. 

“ The prophets are drunk when they prophesy.” — Isa. xxviii. 7. 

“ The prophets prophesy lies in the name of the Lord.” — Jer. xiv. 
14. 

“ The prophet is a fool.” — Hos. ix. 7. 

“ They prophesy for money.” — Mic. iii. 11. 

While we dwell upon a score of prophecies from 
which we make out some fulfillment, and which would 
find accomplishment quite as applicable in a thousand 
other events happening in Hindostan or elsewhere, how 
is it that we never consider the thousands of prophecies 
for which there never was fulfillment ? Read Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel, and Isaiah, mark and number their curious 
predictions, and you can not but be struck with the con¬ 
viction that these rhapsodies had not the intent nor 
the meaning we attach to prophecy. Hundreds of 
prophets were slinging off predictions by the furlong, 
vague generalities or unintelligible verbiage; every 
prophet called his brother-prophet a liar; and they 
accused one - another of prophesying any thing com¬ 
manded for money: and when any thing was clearly 
foretold, but failed, “ the Lord repented ” of the threat¬ 
ened mischief, and changed his mind. Ezekiel claims 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 249 


that lie was commanded to prophesy against the prophets 
of Israel generally, for they were a lying set (xiii. 2-6). 
He says that the absurdities of unfulfilled prophecies 
had become a proverb. God admits the justice of the 
proverb, and promises that it shall not be so hereafter; 
that all prophecies in the future shall be clear as to the 
things to happen and as to the time of occurrence : there 
shall be an end to prophecies vague and timeless ; and 
only what shall be accomplished soon and certainly will 
hereafter be the test of true prophecy. (See Ezek. 
xii. 22-28.) 

If we make any account at all of this counsel of God 
through Ezekiel, it is decisive against all the alleged 
prophecies of Christ, which are said to be fulfilled by 
various events, even if common sense did not condemn 
the perversion. It is indeed to be lamented that the 
writers who were at pains to strain at such hard-fitting 
prophecies had not appreciation enough to understand 
the self-sustaining power of Jesus. Of what possible 
account are the alleged prophecies, and their supposed 
fulfillment,—about calling his son from Egypt, about rid¬ 
ing on an ass, casting lots for his garments, so usual 
among executioners? There is not one of the least 
bearing : and, if no better prophecy can be made out, we 
do not hesitate to say that it would be better for the credit 
of our religion if we should disown them all as inter¬ 
polations ; for it is not only that we gain nothing, but 
that we lose in the widespread infidelity which comes 
of mixing up in one enforcement things which are im¬ 
portant and credible, and things which are unimportant 
and incredible. There are reasons of much greater 
weight why we should drop the alleged prophecies of 


250 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


Christ; and it is with some reluctance we venture to 
give them reference. If we do our duty, men will turn 
to the books of prophecy, and search in the predictions 
of the Messiah for those quoted by the evangelists. 
Then they will perceive that the real prophecies have 
been excluded from their attempts at fulfillment; and, 
instead, they have rambled through Esaias and elsewhere 
for scattered phrases; not prophecies of any thing, but 
narratives in the past tense. If translated as similar 
words are elsewhere rendered, even the virgin concep¬ 
tion will be found to refer to Isaiah’s wife, and the 
child probably Hezekiah. “ Young woman,” and not 
“ virgin,”* is the Hebrew word. 

When the reader arrives at the real predictions of 
the Jewish Messiah, he can not fail to be astonished; 
for not a word has been fulfilled in the person or in the 
mission of Christ. 

The prediction was substantially this, viz., — that a 
great prince should come, who would redeem the Jewish 
nation from their depressed condition, and place them 
higher than ever before among the nations. There was 
to be universal peace and happiness. Nation shall no 
longer lift up its sword against nation, and war will be 
no longer known on the earth. Crime will also 
cease. The office of the priesthood will be abolished; 
and, indeed, God will engrave his law on every heart, 
and all men will obey it spontaneously. (See Jeremiah, 
Isa. ii. 4, Mic. iv.) 

In the fulfillment of all this, have we a single prediction 
verified ? No, not one ! 

So long as we rely upon these chimerical prophecies, 
we can not reconcile our Saviour’s advent to them ; 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 251 


we can not say the Jews are unreasonable in still look¬ 
ing for the promised Messiah; nor can we quarrel with 
our neighbor for his general disbelief in all inspired 
prophecy, nor for his- particular incredulity in the evan¬ 
gelistic applications and fulfillments. A Saviour came 
into the world; but he was not what the Jews were 
taught to expect. We have one safe plea ; viz., that 
the whole Mosaic religion was set aside and condemned 
by Jesus, and his own given to replace it; that, as a 
matter of fact, it has effectually done so, in combination 
with that of Mohammed, which is, so to say, an offshoot 
of Christianity, and an adversary of Judaism. 

Then we place our religion on the highest grounds, 
independent of all miracles and prophecies; and also 
independent of, opposed to, and far above, the old pre¬ 
tensions of Moses and his prophets. We have no occa¬ 
sion to carry these dead weights. They encumber, and 
give no reverence. Christianity can say, “ I have no 
need for ancestors: I am an accomplished fact; and 
my own works proclaim that my mission is not from 
any that went before, but from Heaven.” 

So far as propagation is a proof of a religion, we have 
the evidence of ours being one of the most approved; 
while the Mosaic has receded before its waves, almost 
to extinction. 

Now, what we want further is, to show that we are 
worthy of Christ; that we live up to his religion; that 
it has made us better than those of other religions, at 
least in some really important respects. This most val¬ 
uable of all proofs, when we can adduce it, will so 
entirely supersede reliance upon predictions and mira¬ 
cles, and mooted questions of manuscript revelations, 


252 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


that there will no longer be any grounds for taxing cre¬ 
dulity, and ma-king infidel divisions amongst us. A 
vast amount of evil will be suppressed. Then, indeed, 
may we be a united band of Christians, working with 
good conscience and approved success in spreading the 
thus proved better religion, according to the command¬ 
ment of Jesus. Then only shall we prove our religion 
to be true Christianity. 


LOCALITIES OF HEAVEN AND HELL. 

St. Paul says, God’s dwelling is in a far-off sun, beyond the stretch 
of human vision. (See 1 Tim. vi. 16.) 

So many volumes have been written about heaven 
and hell as fixed localities, and so particular have been 
the descriptions of their nature, that it seems wonderful 
none should have pointed out whereaway these places 
are situated. Heretofore, people have not required this 
reasonable show that such writers really had any but 
crude theories. The coming age of universal inquiry 
and exacting judgment warns us to prepare for such 
questions. 

Ages before our era, the sacred Vedas of Hindostan 
recognized the reasonableness of the inquiry. They de¬ 
scribe twenty-eight hells for sins of magnitude, and many 
more for smaller sins. They are all beneath the earth 
and the waters, as earthquakes and volcanic vents are 
ever-living attestations. There are as many hells as 
there are varieties of heinousness in crimes; this being 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 253 


necessary to fair adjustment: and the damned soul 
suffers till it is made clean, being advanced from apart¬ 
ment to apartment; then it ascends to the lowest 
heaven, and finally reaches the highest, where God 
dwells, and becomes re-united with and absorbed in 
the Great Spirit, pure as it came forth in the beginning. 
But sincere repentance, and calling on Krishna, will at 
any time quickly purge his soul of guilt, and his sins 
will be pardoned. The immortal soul is acknowledged 
to be incapable of suffering when detached from the 
body ; therefore a body is expressly provided. 

The highest heaven is north of the solar sphere, 
north of Aries and Taurus, and south of the seven 
stars of the great Polar Bear. The polar star is the 
pivot on which heaven revolves. In this celestial 
sphere, the virtuous live in uninterrupted enjoyment 
until they have received the full reward of their works. 
After this, they return to the world, and go into a new 
round of life as before. This is the manner in which 
they who did good deeds for the hope of reward are 
fully recompensed, an4 far even beyond their deserts; 
but they who were virtuous, and served God by devo¬ 
tion and charity, without the selfish hope of being paid 
highly for it, but for pure love of piety and goodness, 
have a higher destiny. They are relieved from further 
births: they lose their identity, and they obtain that 
greatest and highest of all boons, — absorption into the 
Great Spirit. 

The Persians are taught by their Zendavesta that hell 
is away down in the interior earth, and heaven is in 
the sun, where God dwells. Every sun is a seat of a 
Godhead, or Great Spirit, that governs the planets belong- 


254 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


ing to his dominion. It is with that Deity alone that 
the appurtenant planets have to do. From that sun 
they get every thing. Not even a thought comes from 
the brain of man or animal that is not inspired and 
generated by the sunbeam. Every devout Parsee is up 
and dressed betimes to receive with welcome befitting 
the Giver of all good, when he makes his matin visit, 
arrayed in golden effulgence, proffering bounties and 
blessings to the varied forms of life in the many worlds 
that make faithful circuit around the throne of his 
Majesty. “ Behold the birds, the beasts, and all life, 
up and expecting! Shall man alone, forgetful and un¬ 
grateful, permit the Lord of all to call and find the 
door closed, and none to bid him welcome, and receive 
his blessing and his benefactions ? ” 

“ They believe the sun is a material God, 

And representative of the Unknown.” 

Say what we will, these religions make more fervid 
devotion than ours. As spirit needs body to give it 
effect, so abstract theories, to be effective, require the 
aid of a visible substantiability. In religion, man is at 
best but a child. If he were all spirit, abstraction 
might attach him ; but he is earthly : and something 
material is needful to mediate, as it were, between his 
earth-bound spirit and ethereal heaven. Ornate temples, 
chiming bells, organs, sacred melodies, rich altars and 
drapery, imposing forms and ceremonies, flowers of 
language, and other devices, give material aid and 
quickening to devotion ; and, in exact measurement 
with the felicitous selection of such material attractions, 
we find the followers of Christ show faith unshakable, 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 255 


attachment to their altars, reverence for their pastors, 
and devotion to their religious discipline. But it is not 
to Jesus we are to refer for their introduction into 
Christianity. 

Still, with all our devices, we are immeasurably 
behind the Parsee in felicitous device for the promotion 
of every-day piety, for religious unity, and for preserva¬ 
tion from dogmatic dissensions. The Hindoo hell is a 
thousand - fold more efficient than ours, because its 
temperate pretensions and graduated scale commend it 
to their faith ; while our extravagant, vague, and re¬ 
volting hell — teaching, not expiation, in excuse for 
such an institution in the economy of a benevolent 
Providence, but the perpetuation of what is hateful to 
God—makes it impossible of intelligent belief: and 
thus it stands, in the way of some credible terror that 
might be doing the intended service for repression of 
crime. 

The Hindoo has also a pointed heaven to cast his eyes 
upon ; while our eyes, like the spokes of a carriage- 
wheel, look vague in all directions, and see no local 
habitation for the mansions of eternal felicity. These 
people have the same moral law as our religion; but 
we desire to convert them to our dogmas. If we point 
all around the circle as the place of heaven, they will 
consider everywhere means nowhere ; and a religion 
without a seated heaven will not give them favorable 
impression. 


256 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


CONVERTING THE HEATHEN. 

If we consider that it is our duty to convert the 
heathen from his errors, we should begin by converting 
ourselves, from ignorance of the people we would teach, 
to reasonable knowledge of what they already believe, 
and have believed, long centuries before Jesus was 
born. If we find that nine parts in ten, if not the 
whole, of our religious instruction is identical with theirs, 
we shall be saved much time and pains by admitting the 
fact, and by also admitting, that, being identical and 
older, their claim to revelation and inspiration has equal 
proof with ours, together with the sanction of higher 
antiquity. 

The early fathers of Christianity (as we shall show) 
took this method of converting, by showing that our 
doctrines were of high antiquity, and could be found in 
older religions, known to their opponents. From the 
miraculous incarnation to the crucifixion, Justin Martyr 
(A.D. 150), Tertullian (200 A.D.), showed that Chris¬ 
tianity claimed only what they did for their religions. 
What we have to do is to dwell upon the points of su¬ 
periority of our religion, which reduces our work to few 
points. To these let us concentrate our powers of 
reason and eloquence, when we have first gained their 
confidence, by admiring what in theirs is like ours; and 
we may hope for success. 

To give the reader a general idea that other nations 
have also good religions, and to show that we run in 
channels of thought much like theirs, we present ex- 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EYJL. 257 


tracts from various authorities. It would be found no 
condescension for a devout Christian to consult the 
sacred books of many religions we call heathen, with a 
view to profitable aids to devotion, as well as to enlight¬ 
ened appreciation of God’s spiritual providence so uni¬ 
versally and impartially distributed among all his chil¬ 
dren. 


HEATHEN RELIGIONS. 

Converts. —Father Gregory, being asked what was 
his progress in India, exclaimed, “ Progress! how can 
we ever hope to make progress in converting a people, 
who, when we mention a miracle of our Christ, tell us 
of the infinitely greater ones of their Christ ? ” 

Lieut.-Col. Sleeman says, “ The success of Christi¬ 
anity in India lias always depended upon the emolu¬ 
ments given the natives to make the change.” 

Archbishop Jeffreys, a missionary to India, says, “For 
one really converted Christian, the drinking practices of 
the English have made fully a thousand drunkards.” 

Miracles. — “The Hindoos have irresistible proof 
of their miracles ever right before their eyes. Every 
mountain, every stream, is consecrated by some miracu¬ 
lous legend of change in form or position. Hence our 
miracles are quite without value as means for their con¬ 
version. They never doubt our miracles and prophe¬ 
cies, because God must have given us also a religion. 
He had given them a religion ages ago ; and why not to 
his younger children ? But they express surprise for 
the very meager miracles done for ours.” — Sleeman. 

17 


258 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


Sacrificial Atonement. — “ The Khouds, north of Hin- 
dostan, have a dogma that the sins of the people can 
only be expiated by the occasional sacrifice of a human 
.being. They always pay a price for the victim: When 
they are slaughtering him, they exclaim, ‘We have 
bought you with a price, and no sin rests upon ns.’ ” — 
Journal Asiat. Soc. 

“ They had prophets, revelations, and inspired writers; 
and their priests claim inspiration, by which, alone, the 
Scriptures can be interpreted.” — Do. 

Identity of Heathen and Christian Religions. — From 
Father Bouchet’s missionary letters to Bishop of 
Avranches, quoted by Chateaubriand: — 

“ The ancient East-Indian fables abound in traditions 
which embody in their moral instruction all the princi¬ 
pal truths of our religion, and all the prominent tradi¬ 
tions in our Scriptures. They teach a doctrine like our 
adorable Trinity : ‘ Three persons in one God ! ’ They 
are still more explicit in all that relates to the incarna¬ 
tion. Many times, they assert, has the 'second person 
of their Trinity been incarnate miraculously, and 
always appeared as the Saviour or Redeemer of man.” 

“ The doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation were 
more generally introduced into India through the an¬ 
cient Puranas.” — H. T. Prinseps. 

“ The Trinity was a leading dogma of Egypt two 
thousand years before Christ. It is sculptured on all 
the tombs.” — Wilkinson. 

From the different Orphic fragments, Corey (p. 
355) gives a list of nations who had Trinities, and au¬ 
thors who mention them, viz. : — 

From the Abbe Dubois, a Catholic missionary in 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 259 


India for thirty-two years, we extract the follow¬ 
ing : — 

“ There is scarcely a sect or a dogma in Christianity 
that has not its match in the much more ancient reli¬ 
gion of Hindostari. The Christian Millenium is almost 
a literal copy of the expected tenth incarnation of 
Vishnu; and they correspond alike in their origin, 
motives, and expected effects” (220). 

Women. — “ Europeans form their judgment of women 
in India from the lowest castes. 1 can affirm, that, among 
the good castes, Hindoo females, especially married ones, 
are worthy to be taken as patterns of chastity and 
fidelity by Christians in Europe ; and no people surpass 
them in tenderness to children.” 

Converts. — “I am persuaded that it is impracticable to 
make real converts of Hindoos to our faith. During 
my long years of unceasing efforts, I have made what 
missionaries usually call converts, of less than three 
hundred persons. Of these two-thirds were beggars, 
and one-tliird vagrants, and such like, whom none else 
would receive. So soon as there would appear to be no 
advantage, the new converts would abandon the faith ; 
and I am ashamed to say, what is the truth, that only 
the worst among them continued Christians ” (134). 

“ If we could lay aside our European prejudices, we 
should find the Hindoos nearly our equals in all that is 
good, and only our inferiors in all that is bad” (155). 

Hindoo Virtue. — The virtues of the followers of the 
religion of Hindostan are attested by Warren Hastings, 
Sir William Jones, Cornwallis, Robertson, Colebrook, 
Hawkins, Wilkins, Bishop Heber, Sir James Gutram, 
Lieut.-Col. Sleeman, &c. 


260 THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

Ram-Mohum-Roy, who lived in I ondon in 1831, and 
died there in 1836, gave Englishmen a practical proof 
that the Hindoo religion is not incompatible with the 
highest order of learning and practical virtue. u His 
noble appearance, his dignified behavior, and his prudent 
discourse, made a lasting impression.” 

This learned and devout Hindoo was the head of the 
Unitarian faith in India in 1820. He tried to make a 
reformation to correct the corruptions that had accumu¬ 
lated and destroyed the simple purity of their religion ; 
foremost among the reforms being the abolition of the 
Trinity, which he explained to be a very ancient dogma, 
growing out of deifying the attributes of God, and over¬ 
worship of successful reformers. He did not succeed. 
We are told that this was owing to his rejecting the 
advice that success was only possible by his consenting 
to claim a revelation, and a miraculous advent. 

FROM THE INSTITUTES OF MENO. 

(FROM SIR WILLIAM JONES.—VOL. III.) 

Hindoo Baptism. — The priest, in performing this 
rite says (how beautiful and how touching!), u Little 
babe, thou enterest the world weeping, while all around 
thee smile. May thou so live, that thou mayest depart 
in smiles, while all around thee weep.” 

Absolution is granted by the priest on confession and 
sincere repentance ; a penance being enjoined (p. 436). 

Revelation. — Providence continually reveals laws for 
the age and the people. As these change, some become 
obsolete ; and new ones, adapted to the altered condition 
of things, are revealed to the most devout Brahmins. 

It was thus that were abolished from time to time 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 261 


sacrificing cattle, the use of exhilarating drinks, the 
begetting of children by the brother of one deceased 
whose widow is childless, &c., &c. And the prohibition 
to defend one’s life when assailed has been abrogated 
by the example of Krishna himself (pp. 463-466). 

The Secret Name of G-od has always been held as a 
great mystery, known only to the highest Brahmins ; 
but it is said to be known as u Aum.” 

The Scripture is to angels, to patriarchs, and to man¬ 
kind, an eye giving constant light. Nor could the Veda 
Sastra have been made by human faculties; neither 
can it be measured by human reason unassisted by 
revealed glosses and comments. This is a sure propo¬ 
sition (p. 457). 

Unity of God. — A true knowledge of the one Su¬ 
preme God, and the adoration of the Almighty, it is the 
duty of every one to acquire from the Vedas, where it 
is taught with all the rules of good conduct necessary 
to lead mankind to virtue (p. 455). 

Many gods are in voked by the uninformed; but 
these are only personifications of the various attributes 
of the one Divine Spirit. 

Free Will and Destiny. — All worlds are seated in 
the Divine Spirit; producing by a chain of cause and 
effect, consistent, no doubt, with free will, the connect¬ 
ed series of acts performed by embodied souls (p. 456). 

Consanguinity. — A man must not marry sisters from 
the same womb, nor daughter of an uncle nor an aunt. 
Marriage should not be contracted even within the sixth 
degree of descent from paternal or maternal ancestors. 
A scrupulous person will not marry a girl of the same 
name lest she might be so related (p. 119, &c.). 


262 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


Temptation. — A woman is capable to draw from the 
right path in life, not a fool only, but even a sage. Be 
guarded when alone with her: the assemblage of cor¬ 
poreal organs is too powerful for philosophy to resist 
(P- 112). 

Missionaries. — James Prinsep, among the transcripts 
he has collected from Mural edicts issued by a Buddhist 
monarch, two centuries before Jesus Christ, gives us 
one announcing the appointment of missionaries to go 
abroad, “ and drown the nations with the overflowing 
truths of our religion, to release them from the fetters 
of sin, and bring them into the salvation which passeth 
understanding.” 

St. Paul anticipated. — Another exhorts the people 
to look upon the glory of this world as transitory, u to 
look beyond, to fight the good fight of faith, to achieve 
the victory of victories by conquering the passions; 
thus overcoming this world, and vanquishing the next.” 

From the very ancient sacred books of the Singalese, 
translated by Edward Upham, we collect evidences of 
many curious resemblances to dogmas and ceremonials 
revived in our age. The date of their record is vari¬ 
ously estimated by authorities from 949 to 1036 before 
our Christ. Sir William Jones dates their incarnation 
of Buddha at 1014 b.c. 

Incarnations of Grod. — Many are recorded ; and gen¬ 
erally a voice from heaven announces the conception to 
the woman, by the words, “ That which is conceived in 
thee is blessed ” (p. 54). 

Miracles which throw ours into insignificancy — sus¬ 
pension in the air, and raising the dead after long burial 
in a tomb guarded by British sentinels — have often been 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 263 


done before British regiments according to official docu- 

o o 

ments. 

Casting out Devils is an every-day performance by 
the divine Buddha in Ceylon. 

Tonsure and Vows of Celibacy are priestly practices. 

Exoteric and Esoteric Interpretations are made of the 
same texts, after the manner of early Christian sects, 
who learned from Plato. 

Religious Corruption by the priests, and falsification of 
the texts of Scripture, provoked, every few ages, a grand 
religious crusade, in which all their books were burned, 
and new and correct ones written (pp. 312-323). 

Proof of their Religion. — Besides miracles and innate 
superiority, the unexampled rapidity of its extension is 
pointed to, and the speaking fact that God’s favor is 
shown by its being this day the sole religious guide of 
more people than any other. 

Prophecy. — Great events clearly prophesied and ful¬ 
filled to the date predicted, without any ambiguity of 
phrase, or strain of application, abound in their records. 
They lost a relic (captured by the Portuguese, and pur¬ 
posely destroyed) upon which hung a terrible prophecy. 
This was averted by the chief priest’s finding the iden¬ 
tical tooth of Buddha restored by miracle, and floating 
on a lotus-flower. 

Devils are human beings who have fallen from their 
state of happiness in heaven. 

The Day of Judgment follows death without delay. 

Sabbath. — Every seventh day of the four changes 
of the moon is for public worship (p. 161). 

Parables answering to many of ours are given. The 
foolish merchants, and the birds in the net, are to the 


2G4 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


same purpose as “ the foolish virgins,” and “ the house 
divided.” 

Halos. — Saints are represented as in our Catholic 
churches. 

Relics. — Their bones are preserved in costly shrines, 
and work miracles. 

The Altar. — Incense is burned, lamps are lighted, 
a chalice is used and holy water. 

The Commandments. — The ten are often mentioned, 
but five only appear; viz., 1. Not to kill; 2. Not to 
steal; 3. Not to fornicate ; 4. Not to lie ; 5. Not to in¬ 
toxicate. 

Tolerance. — Abul Fuzul (prime minister to the Em¬ 
peror Akbar) says every sect becomes infatuated with 
dogmas, which it persecutes others to adopt. Did men 
listen to reason, they would cease to interfere with 
religious convictions ; for what is gained, except making 
men conceal without changing their opinions ? 

The people of Thibet are devout and charitable. 
Though strongly attached to their religion, they freely 
allow their daughters to marry, and embrace any re¬ 
ligion ; for they believe all religions are, in essential prin¬ 
ciples, the same (Calcutta Oriental Quarterly Maga¬ 
zine). 

Moral Philosophy. — The works of Imamod Deen 
and Nuzurad Deen of Thons are two of the best secular 
works perhaps ever written on the human mind, and 
man’s duty to his fellow-man, — less dry than Aristotle, 
and more practical than Plato. — Sleeman, p. 56. 

Public Charities. — To give an idea pf the benevo¬ 
lence of the Hindoos, Lieut.-Col. Sleeman gives us the 
number of their public works, registered by his orders 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EYIL. 265 


in 1829, in the single district of Jubbupore; population 
one-half million: — 

2,280 water-tanks. 

209 large wells, with steps to the water. 

1,560 “ “ walled, but not stepped. 

860 Hindoo temples. 

22 Mohammedan mosques. 

(Rev. Stephen Olin refers to this kind of benevolence.) 
The cost of these would be in England X8,500,000. 
Every one of these was erected by individuals who 
could in no way profit by them, except in approving 
consciences and the blessings of the public. Besides, I 
should estimate three thousand groves of mango and 
tamarind trees to give shade and shelter and refreshing 
fruits to travelers. 

Private Kindness and Unselfishness. — A water- 
tank or a well in India has a value which an English¬ 
man can hardly conceive. It is the Indian’s sole 
dependence; for all his crops require irrigation. The 
farm which has water rents highly ; while the one next 
to it, without water, commands a very low price. Yet 
there can not be found an instance where a Hindoo 
does not welcome his neighbor to the gratuitous daily 
use of- the water of his well when he has finished his 
irrigation. 

Col. Sleeman tried to persuade one who complained 
of his rent to do as Christians do with their neighbors, 
— make them pay for the water. The benevolent Hin¬ 
doo was shocked at the suggestion. “ I pay a high rent 
for its use; but do I not get all the water I want ? ” 
He would rather perish with God’s blessing than to 
charge his neighbor for the water, which is a free gift 


266 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


of God to all. 44 They acknowledge it as a gift from 
me : this is a great reward.” 

Practical Value of the Religion of the Hindoos . — 
Read the above, O Christian ! and say to the Hindoo, 
before God, if thou darest, 44 My religion is better than 
thine; for it is the parent of greater charity.” 

Education. — Perhaps there are few countries where 
education is more generally diffused. After his seven- 
years’ study, the head of a Mohammedan student in 
India is as well stored as one just graduated at Oxford. 
— Sleeman. 

Extract from Wilson’s translation of the Vishnu 
Purana: — 

The Hindoo Christ, Krishna, was born also of a 
married woman without the agency of her husband. 
44 The Holy Ghost crept into her womb while her hus¬ 
band slept.” u The Holy Ghost ” (“ the Word,” 44 the 
third person of the Godhead,” are also names applied) 
became also incarnate in a similar way, and assisted 
like John the Baptist. The reigning king, fearing the 
prophecy that this child should become king over his 
people, sought the infant diligently to kill him; and, 
not finding him, he ordered the massacre of all the male 
children, by which was fulfilled the prophecy; but the 
parents fled with the child into a distant country, and 
thus escaped. On their way they were met by persons 
bringing tribute. 

In his boyhood, Krishna had a struggle with the 
44 snake demon,” and vanquished him. The snake cried 
aloud, attesting the divinity of Krishna, and pleaded for 
mercy sensibly, thus: 44 Thou'didst create the world. 
The species, form, and nature of all things are thy 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 267 

work. That I have a snake’s disposition is your law, 
not my fault. Such as thou madest me I am. If I 
should act differently, then, indeed, would I merit pun¬ 
ishment.” 

Thus appeased, Krishna, having with his foot 
pressed out the poison, let the serpent go, saying that 
the mark of lib foot on its front would protect it from 
all who desire to slay it. 

The Hindoo gospel is glossed with notes by the com¬ 
pilers, in which the acts of Krishna are separated into 
those which are to be attributed to his human, and 
those to his divine nature. So nicely is the distinction 
drawn, that Krishna in his human nature worshiped 
himself in his divine nature (pp. 529-564). 

His humble origin is pointed to by the sects which 
believe him only man ; his miracles, by believers in his 
divinity. But the history makes him deny his divinity, 
and forbids his disciples to worship him (pp. 351-589). 

A crooked woman presents fragrant and costly oint¬ 
ment to anoint his person, and he straightens her 
(p. 550). 

Though Krishna taught deference to parents in all 
cases, yet the Gopis abandoned father, mother, husband, 
and kin for Krishna’s sake (p. 570). 

The following phrases are taken from the ancient 
Hindoo Scriptures, dating beyond the era of Moses (Sir 
William Jones) : — 

“ I fly to Krishna for refuge, and by penance shall 
work out the salvation of my soul” (p. 368). 

“ Calling on the name of Krishna will save from harm 
those who believe in him” (pp. 139-136). 

u Krishna came into the world for the salvation of 
mankind” (p. 158). 


268 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


“ He is the Saviour and preserver of the world ” 

(p. 140). 

“ Krishna is the first-born ” (p. 159). 

u He descended to take upon himself the burdens of 
the earth ” (p. 427). 

“ He willed to become mortal for the good of the 
world ” (p. 588). 

u Calling on Krishna is the only salvation” (p. 629, 
note). 

“ The Hindoo Christ was transfigured.” — Sir Wil¬ 
liam Jones, vol. i., p. 466. 

“ He came to establish righteousness on the earth ” 

(p. 494). 

u Just previously to his transfiguration on the mount, 
he fed a multitude that followed him.” (It is to be in¬ 
ferred that it was miraculous, though it does not say 
so.) (P.525.) 

One of Krishna’s miracles was, viz., during one of 
the great monsoons, he picked up a mountain, and held 
it over the people seven days and nights, and afterwards 
replaced it; the mountain being shown to this day (p. 

527). 

A note says that some impious infidels pretend that 
this is merely a false translation of a hieroglyph which 
represents Krishna holding an ant-hill shaped umbrella 
(figurative merely of protection) over his own family. 
The Hindoo Christ foretold his own death, and ascension 
into heaven, and the dispersion of his people (p. 609). 

u Many false Krishnas arose, crying , 6 Lo ! here I am, 
Krishna f’” (p. 581). 

“He once was surrounded by thieves; and, being 
sorely distressed, cried aloud in bitterness, 6 Alas, alas! 
I am deserted by my Lord! ’ ” (P. 615.) 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 269 


“ After the death of the Hindoo Christ, the old ritual, 
its forms and ceremonies, were abolished ” (p. 628). 
“Idle prayers, fruitless ceremonies, and useless feasts.” 

The death of the Hindoo Christ occurred in his hun¬ 
dredth year, by an unintentional wound. The cause 
of it, being truly penitent, prayed forgiveness. Krishna 
granted it, and assured him that “ this day shalt thou be 
with me in heaven.” A celestial car came down ; and 
Krishna, abandoning his mortal body, ascended that day 
into heaven” (p. 612). 

A rich man of devotion took the body, performed the 
last ceremonies, and consumed it on the funeral-pyre; 
and thus his mortal body ascended to the skies (p. 618). 

The Hindoo Vedas have been rewritten twenty-eight 
times ; it being necessary, on account of constant changes 
in words, and their meaning in all languages, to renew 
the text every four ages (p. 269). For some years, how¬ 
ever, owing to neglect of religion, the Vedas were lost. 
One sage, who had not neglected his studies, with the 
aid of inspiration re-compiled them (p. 285). 

Sir William Jones tells us that the very same history 
attaches to the Persian Zeratusht. 

To stop the mouth of those who question the Scrip¬ 
ture, “you must raise the cry of ‘Infidels!’ against 
them.” 

Resignation. — The disposition to receive misfortunes 
with resignation and good-humor is characteristic of 
Orientals, as distinguished from Europeans (Rev. J. 
Perkins; also Charles Fellows). 

Moral Maxims. — Hottinger gives a catalogue of those 
of the Mohammedans, to show their excellence. Bayle 
says of them, that they contain the most excellent pre- 


270 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


cepts that have been given to man for the practice of 
virtue, and the avoidance of vice. M. Simon adds his 
testimony. 

We have the testimony of all the ancient writers, that 
the Egyptians were the most devout people in the 
world; and the records of their monuments confirm it. 
— Sir Gard. Wilkinson, vol. i. 

Comparative Devotion. — The Persians are far more 
susceptible of feeling than we ; and their devotion con¬ 
trasts sadly with the cold and heartless manner of Chris¬ 
tians at their devotions. (Substantially from Rev. J. 
Perkins.) 

Rev. Dr. Duff, a Scotch missionary, says the heathen 
of London far surpass those of India in wickedness. 

Rev. Dr. Olin bears testimony to the prayerful and 
devotional character of the Mussulman, and the practi¬ 
cal character of his religion. He says that there is in 
this a reason for the very trifling success of our mission¬ 
ary labors among them. An American missionary of 
many years’ experience made to us a similar observation 
at Cairo. 

Prostitution. — Dr. Olin was amazed, at Geneh on 
the Nile, to see public women in a Mohammedan town. 
He found that all the efforts of the government to sup¬ 
press this evil were defeated by Christian travelers, who 
upheld its continuance. 

Doctrine of Charity. — “ Every good act,” said Mo¬ 
hammed, “ is charity.” An exhortation to virtuous 
deeds is equal to giving alms; putting a wanderer in the 
right road is charity; removing obstructions from the 
highway, giving water to the thirsty, are charity. A 
man’s true wealth hereafter is the good he does his fel- 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 271 


low-men. When he dies, people may say, u What 
property has he left?” but the angels who examine 
him in the grave will ask, “ What good deeds hast thou 
sent before thee?” — Washington Irving’s Life of 
Mohammed. 

Worship. — Dr. Mott says, “ I have watched the fol¬ 
lowers of Mohammed everywhere, in Turkey and in 
Egypt; and they appear infinitely more faithful and siu= 
cere in their forms of worship than Christians.” The 
doctor feels constrained to recommend them to Chris^ 
tians as models for imitation. 

Prayer. — Their devotion to religion far excels ours. 
Though they have no priesthood, they pray more than 
we; and they make no parade of piety (Charles Fellows). 

Hospitality is universal. “ Feed the stranger ” is 
their law. 

Trinity. — Zoroaster (1200 b.c.) taught three per¬ 
sons in the godhead; 1st, The Supreme Being; 2d, 
Proceeding from him through the creative word, Or* 
muzd, the good spirit; 3d, Ahriman, the evil spirit, 
Judgment follows death at once. 

Rewards and Punishments. —- These are awarded sq 
as to do justice to all. In time, all evil will be cqi}t 
verted into good. The only object of punishment, like 
painful surgery, is to eradicate the bad, and restore the 
diseased limb to health. The Devil and his angels will 
finally become good, and the empire of the Good Spirit 
will prevail, and continue for ever. 

This doctrine is worthy of Christian consideration. 

The Pentateuch. —M. Langles, a learned exponent 
of Hindoo literature, says that the Egyptians obtained, 
from Hindostan the basis of their religion, each claiming 


272 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


revelation from God. u I have collected evidence to 
convince the most incredulous that the Pentateuch is 
made up from Egyptian books, and the original still ex¬ 
ists in India.” 

Religion of Persia. — The primeval religion of Iran 
is pronounced by Sir Isaac Newton “ the oldest in the 
world ; and it may justly be called the noblest.” A sys¬ 
tem of devotion too pure and sublime to be long proof 
against ecclesiastical corruption (Sir William Jones). 


CONCESSIONS OF THE FATHERS TO HEATHEN 
RELIGIONS AND MARTYROLOGY. 

We said that we would show that early Christian 
fathers adopted the plan of conceding to other religions 
what was due. Take the following examples : — 

Justin Martyr, in his apology to Antoninus Pius, 
A.D. 150 : u In many things we hold the same opinions 
as your poets and philosophers,” who taught the same 
system of rewards and punishments. We say punish¬ 
ment has no end. Plato says it lasts a thousand years. 

Miraculous Conception. — When we say Jesus was 
begotten of a virgin by God, and was the word of God, 
it corresponds with the tenets you hold when you call 
Mercury the word of God. That he was born of a 
virgin is only what you assert of Perseus. 

Miraculous Cures. — When we assert that Jesus 
cured the lame, blind, and palsied, and raised the dead, 
we claim no more than you do for Esculapius. 

Ascension- — You say that Esculapius was also taken 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 273 


up to heaven ; nay, you bring some to swear they saw 
Caesar, who was burned, ascend to heaven from the 
funeral-pyre. 

Incarnation. — Our mystery of the incarnation, for the 
instruction and improvement of mankind, is a thing told 
by your poets as happening long before. 

Crucifixion. — You ridicule the idea of crucifying the 
Son of God. But your sons of Jupiter suffered and 
died in the same way, rose and ascended to heaven. 

Christianity Old as the World. — Justin Martyr says, 
“ It is objected that Christianity was withheld from the 
world till about one hundred and fifty years ago. But 
it is as old as the world. Socrates and Heraclitus, and 
other philosophers who lived according to reason, were 
really Christians.” 

Tertullian, A.D. 200, in his “Apology” says, “We 
are ridiculed for claiming a new revelation of doctrines 
held by yourselves. That God will come to judge the 
world was taught by your philosophers. You have a 
hell similar to ours. Your Elysian Fields are b\it 
another name for our Paradise. 

The Logos, or the Word. — Your philosophers also 
agree with us in ascribing the creation to the Logos, or the 
word, or reason of God. Zeno teaches the same ; and 
Cleanthes ascribes it to the spirit which pervades the 
universe. This is our faith. To show that the sacrifice 
of life for our religion (in Jesus and in the martyrs) is 
not incredible, he reminds them that Mutius left his 
hand on the altar, Empedocles threw himself alive into 
the burning abyss of ^Etna. She who founded Carthage 
sacrificed herself on the funeral-pyre to secure her 
chastity. A harlot of Athens, being under torture, bit 
18 


274 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


off her tongue, that her agony might not tempt her to 
betray a friend. Zeno Eleates suffered scourging to 
death for his opinions. How many noble Spartans have 
unflinchingly borne extreme tortures rather than yield! 
All that Christians claim of religious sacrifice, others 
have undergone for country and for private friendship. 
(Apology, chap. 50.) 

Theophilus of Antioch, and Autolycum, lib. ii. p. 
115 ; and Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromata, lib. iv. p. 
541, — give collections of passages from heathen works 
that agree with many tenets of Christianity. If the 
early fathers found these concessions the best way to 
win the heathen, then may we not follow their example 
with profit ? 


TRANSMUTATION OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

. Nothing gives more convincing illustration of the 
law of perpetual transmutation of evil into good, and 
back again in reverse, than the study of climatology. 

The air, so bland and so beautiful at Naples, is inhos¬ 
pitable at Iceland. At one season it is all frowns, at 
another all smiles, at St. Petersburg. Yet it is the same 
air. The sea is all frosty and repulsive at Greenland, 
and warm and inviting in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet it 
is the same element. It is to these variations of tem¬ 
perature that our oceans of air and of water owe their 
movements, and we our health. Equatorial heat and 
polar cold keep up constant currents to and fro 
between the extremes. Good and evil make continual 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 275 


commeroe. It is trade, in all its features. The north 
produces more cold than it wants; so the south heat. 
Each exports its surplus. 

The exuberant growth that comes of excess of heat 
brings poison to the air ; but the destruction of life from 
the excess of cold is checked by infusion of the same 
air. By interchange, each corrects the failings of the 
ether. What is evil at the equator is good when sent 
to the north. What is terrible evil at the north is 
coveted good at the south. You complain of ice : we 
can’t get enough of it, says one. The other says, you 
call heat a trouble : it is just what we want to cure our 
troubles. 

It will be seen that this arrangement in the physical 
world is a self-regulating and compulsory law, without 
which there would be no healthy life on this planet. It 
is also a self-detergent process, by which evils are 
purged out, and the elements restored to purity ; and so 
kept for ever going new rounds of usefulness. No air nor 
water is lost or cast away on account of being tainted. 
It is the taint that is cast off, and the substance is 
saved. 

When we make ourselves thoroughly masters of a 
law of Providence, touching what is material, we may 
be sure that the same is the law for what is analogous in 
the moral circuit. 

Man is made up of material elements and material 
organs. His life is material in so large proportions, and 
it is so dominated by material influences of climate and 
other forces, that the soul, which is*in intimate and in¬ 
separable bondage to it, must of necessity be ruled by 
one and the same law. Insanity and kindred disturb- 


276 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


ances, that come to the soul from organic disease of the 
material brain, make this sufficiently evident. 

Let happiness, virtue, and riches be represented as 
equatorial; and misery, vice, and empty pockets as 
polar. Riches over much, from unresting tropical 
growth, breed corruption. If the moral polar regions 
lend us no counter-currents of under air to give move¬ 
ment to the equatorial moral atmosphere, it stagnates, 
and all its rich powers for good die, and turn to disease, 
instead of to moral fertilization-and fruitage. Let moral 
Boreas, then, send on his cold current of miseries, his 
vagabonds with their vices and their empty pockets, and 
mark the change ! 

Charity springs into growth; that blessed above all 
virtues, which was dying for want of pabulum, takes on 
growth just in proportion as misery is supplied for it to 
feed upon. Yesterday the stagnant moral atmosphere 
stupefied the world into indolence and apathy, leading 
to moral death. To-day, let loose the current of vaga¬ 
bonds, and u miracle ” is the word for the instant 
awakening of moral life ! A new creation comes, giving 
trade and healthy interchange of surplus: bolts and 
bars, safety-chests, prisons, legislators, judges, lawyers, 
preachers, book-printers, watchmen, plans and devices 
of genius, — a vast life-returning counter-current* of 
good. 


In a population of millions, this admirable law leaves 
not one without quickening his wits and vigilant faculties. 
In every act of his life, he has to consider the cheat¬ 
ing, and the many ways he may lose his money. This 
gives perpetual motion to the health of his brain, and 
the sharpening of his wits, while it trebles all his enjoy- 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 277 


ments by the zest that comes of earning their security. 
Between mam and man, this discipline may seem hard to 
the disciplinee. But, in the light of providential inquiry, 
the moral circuit is every way admirable as its physical 
analogue; and, like it, the currents and counter-cur¬ 
rents will continue for ever, as a necessity of moral 
motion. Like children enforced with medicine, virtue 
may think itself wronged ; but it gets fair exchange. 
It owes its very life to the trade ; so much vice to save 
so much virtue from death by starvation ! 

Paul goes so far as to say God makes men stubborn 
unbelievers, that he may have some objects to give exer¬ 
cise to his mercy. And the apostle declares this policy 
admirable in science and in wisdom. (Rom. xi. 32, 33.) 

It is thus that evil is neutralized by the good it gener¬ 
ates from its loins as it were ; for vice is surely the 
parent of virtue in the plan of Providence. Nothing 
is made in vain ; and it is the purpose of this treatise to 
illustrate the truth to the glory of the Most High. 

To complete the simile, it should appear that all vice 
is self-purged in this circuit; that the soul-element is 
cleansed of impurities coming from its passage through 
tainted mediums, and that it thus becomes regenerated 
and purified for continued circuits of usefulness in the 
service of its Creator. In other parts of this work, 
we are led, by various channels of reasoning, to the 
strengthening of this conviction ; and we hope to con¬ 
vince our readers, that it is the clearest development of 
the wisdom, and of the only unquestioned benevolence 
of our Great Parent, in thus giving eternal triumph to 
Good over Evil. 


278 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


PRAISING GOD. 

“ Who flatters is of all mankind the lowest, 

Save he who courts the flattery.” 

The weakest man, and he who least merits, is most 
fond of praise. The highest order of mind and heart, 
men of disinterested piety and benevolence, have least 
appetite for praise ; and we must be carefully sparing of 
it if we would avoid suspicion and disgust. 

All our conceptions of God are based upon our being 
in his similitude. We give him a throne and a court 
of heaven, angels to wait, clierubims and a host of 
souls praising him unceasingly. There is no doubt a 
purpose in this instinct of universal religion ; but, if 
God is the Great Almighty over all, it is questionable 
if its purpose is his personal gratification. It would 
seem inconsistent with his exalted perfection to take 
delight in listening to praises of himself, especially from 
atomic existences, such as men from the smallest planet, 
but one remove from the brute, and not one in every 
million knowing enough of the vast universe of God, 
or even of his system of good and evil, to make their 
praises of deserved proportions. Better not pray, than 
to “ damn with faint praise,” if the purpose be as repre¬ 
sented. Men, before going to kingly courts, are careful 
to study the highest acts of the monarch, for their com¬ 
pliments ; that kings and ministers may feel that it is 
intelligent praise. Man, with his head filled by popular 
theology, by notions of God’s government not com- 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 279 

pletely reconcilable with unbounded wisdom and eternal 
and unalloyed benevolence, is not a fit delegate to sound 
the just praises of omnipotence. It takes the character 
of flattery when we who believe in hell call his 
mercy infinite ! In this view, he would fit himself for 
the duty of offering praise should prepare himself by 
studying God in his starry heavens. It is his duty to 
study why evil is here, how it comports with the 
wisdom of God, and how its perpetuation by eternal 
retribution is reconcilable with eternal and illimitable 
goodness. Till lie can thus qualify himself, he is not fit 
to offer that full-hearted and intelligent praise which is 
due to the Giver of all good. 

When, however, we consider how unworthy of favor 
our faint and ignorant praise must be, and how impossi¬ 
ble of service to God personally, it seems that its only 
practical service may be to keep down our own pride, 
and to fertilize the devotional principle. This is ren¬ 
dered probable by the fact, that every prayer of praise 
is largely composed of self-abasement; and this part of 
such prayers is always exaggerated beyond what we 
would permit any one else to aver as our true character. 
In this way we recognize, in the praising of God, an in¬ 
stitution all for our own good. We are then equally 
impressed with its greater efficiency, the more we learn 
of our Creator’s vast works, of the justice of his deal¬ 
ings with mankind, and of the boundless expanse and 
the unalloyed perfection of his goodness. Thus in¬ 
structed, man may begin to feel true humility and 
devotion, inexpressibly above our sectarian acquisi¬ 
tions. 

If the Christian pulpit would raise us upward towards 


280 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


heaven, it may exchange dogmatic disputation for in¬ 
struction of the kind indicated. 

“ In contemplation qf created things, 

By steps we may ascend to God.” 


THE NEXT WORLD. 

“ On that unknown and silent shore 
Shall we not meet as heretofore ? ” — Shaks£eare. 

“ ’There is, they say, — and I believe there is, — 

A spark within us of immortal fire, 

That, when the body sinks, escapes to heaven, 

Its native seat, and mixes with the gods.” — Armstrong. 

The thousand religions in the world have this doubt 
thrown over their pretensions. Each claims alike to be 
revealed to one only person. Not one of them is an 
internal revelation of God to more than one man. In 
not one of them has the revelation been made to woman, 
who is their chief support! But the belief of the im¬ 
mortality of the soul has been from the first implanted 
by the Creator in every brain of man, of philosopher, 
sage, and poet, of every woman that has parted with 
one she loves. 

The universality of this faith, its removal from all 
claims to special favor of revelation, its needing no 
miracles, nor prophecies, nor any of the common en¬ 
ginery of religious schemes to enforce belief, shows that 
it is an inseparable part of man’s rationality. There is 
no such ever-living proofs of any, nor of all religious rev¬ 
elations, as this self-generating doctrine of life beyond 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 281 


the tomb. It stands on higher grounds than all others. 
It is not the gospel according to some one unknown to 
us, nor the epistle of any distant writer; but it is the 
gospel of God inwoven in every soul individually: 
therefore every one believes, and his faith can not be 
shaken. It is true that the manner of our future life is 
left to the varying fancies of our minds. Not one of 
our theories can be mapped out so as to present a prac¬ 
tical entirety. 

“ Divines but peep on undiscovered worlds, 

And draw the distant landscape as they please; 

But who has e’er returned from these bright regions, 

To tell their manners, or relate their laws 1 ” 

It is highly probable that the fashion of after-life is 
beyond man’s capacity to comprehend. It would be like 
trying to explain logarithms to a horse, or to get him to 
understand the mystery of our giving a sack of oats in 
exchange for a bit of printed paper. 

But we may hope, by study, to arrive at some better 
definition than our popular conceptions, now so vague. 
The coming age will not rest content with any vague 
imaginings. The purpose of a resurrected body, with 
organs scarcely adapted to the popular suppositions of 
the new life, must be made more apparent. Some con¬ 
cessions will be exacted; and the sooner they are made 
the smaller will be the changes. Very small timely 
concessions would have prevented the Lutheran revolu¬ 
tion. We should run no risk of shaking the foundations 
of so blessed a belief, so indispensable to our happiness, 
by weighting it down with impossible conditions. This 
priceless panacea for the evils of life should be made 
secure by every means that human reason can com¬ 
mand. 


282 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


GOSPEL CHANGES. 

Had our four gospels been miraculous in their origin, 
which means above the laws of nature, they should 
show evidence of it by immunity from the corruptions 
incident to natural productions. Indeed, they ought to 
be miraculously accordant in narrative, in quotations of 
words from the Saviour’s lips, in so stating doctrine as 
to be miraculously well understood, and beyond disputa¬ 
tion. The Trinity, the Godship of Jesus, their own 
miraculous inspiration, the nature of the atoning re¬ 
demption, and so forth, should have been miraculously 
well stated ; and, particularly, it should not have been 
possible for mere natural talent to surpass their miracu¬ 
lous power in this respect. The offspring should show 
its parentage, or how can we be asked to believe ? We 
can not but admit that the Gospels show no such signs 
of miraculous origin. The Thirty-nine Articles, for in¬ 
stance, give contradiction to the assumption ; for their 
avowed purpose is to provide a better human revelation 
than the divine revelation. Had the divine been ex¬ 
plicit, as they conceive it should have been, their im¬ 
provement would not have been necessary. The human 
corrections and additions are necessitated by the imper¬ 
fect words of the divine Revelator! 

This imperfection, history informs us, was so much 
felt by the custodians of the Gospel manuscripts, that 
alterations of words, subtraction of sentences, and inter¬ 
polations of words and sentences, were continually being 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 283 


made. For thirty years after the deatli of Jesus, his 
discourses, his doctrines, and his alleged miracles, were 
trusted solely to the memory of people, who, Jesus com¬ 
plained, were constantly misapprehending him. They 
were ignorant people, who had no knowledge of writ¬ 
ing, and therefore they made no notes. Paul refers 
every thing to their traditions, as yet more reliable than 
any writings. 

In our age of greater education, when a few days 
intervene, no two out of a score of witnesses can agree 
in their statements. Let a month, one year, two.years, 
elapse, and we do not expect any thing but contradic¬ 
tion. “ What he said, and you said, and I said, and 
somebody else said,” makes inextricable fog and uncer¬ 
tainty, as Lord Palmerston declared to be well-known 
experience. How can we expect verbal accuracy after 
a lapse of thirty years ? How can we expect that per¬ 
sons engaged in making religious doctrines for many 
years could avoid the natural tendency of theology to 
make the text conform to the doctrine ? All our secta¬ 
ries, and every preacher of to-day, however conscien¬ 
tious, does this by interpretations, by passing certain 
texts, and by showing partiality to others. And if they 
lived before printing, and were intrusted with a new 
transcription, the same spirit would prompt them to the 
same liberty with the manuscript. 

Our ecclesiastical historians agree, that not only in the 
dark ages, but in the earliest period of Christianity, un¬ 
bridled liberties were .taken with the records; and our 
highest divines pronounce whole epistles doubtful and 
spurious, which are, even now, among ours as genuine. 
Thousands of various readings are pointed out by a 


284 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


powerful Christian association, that is now engaged in 
making a new translation. But, be the translation 
never so perfect, there will be a sad want, viz., the 
unification of the Gospel history, so that we may have 
but one Gospel, with such evidences as are best vouched 
for, and most credible to reason, and most consistent; 
dropping such as can better be dispensed with. No fair 
reading of the first part of Luke can fail to satisfy us 
that this is what the evangelist did, viz., From many 
Gospels he made one, embracing all he considered 
authentic. There is, at this time, yet stronger need for 
us to imitate the example of the evangelist. Chris¬ 
tianity would have profited, had it been content with 
Luke’s Gospel alone, according to its intended purpose 
of superseding all others. 

The tendency of this age is to concentration. Con¬ 
centrated essences of every thing in medicine, to get at 
the curative principles; concentration of contending 
corporations ; concentrations by the factory system. We 
are abridging all works of science; we are concentrat¬ 
ing education by public schools, we are simplifying in¬ 
struction in every department. The aim is to give the 
pupil a radical knowledge, and not superficial. Can we 
keep religious instruction from the same tendency ? A 
concentrated essence of the teachings of Jesus would do 
as much for the diffusion of sound Christianity, as the 
like concentration has done elsewhere. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 285 


HOW SHALL WE REVIEW THE DOGMAS OF 
INTERPRETATION? 

“ Beware of the scribes and Pharisees ! ” 

If it be desirable that we of this age shall examine 
for ourselves the dogmas which a darker ao-e conceived 
to be found in Scripture, that we may also judge of 
their authority, how shall we proceed ? 

Religion was not made for theologians, but for all 
men. In proportion as theology prevails, true piety 
and practical religion fade away. We can conceive no 
worse way to get fair interpretation of the Scripture, 
than to refer it to a council of men learned in theology. 
Jesus taught no theology but the simple fatherhood of 
God, and the sonship of all men of godly life. To 
interpret such religion, we want men of common sense, 
and no theology. Theology binds men by seated 
interests, and by pre-judgment of early training, so that 
it would be their hardest task to bring to the work a 

<_5 

candid spirit or an honest simplicity. 

So far from this, what is the habit of conventions of 
men learned in science and theology ? Every man 
has his theory beforehand, and this it is his instinct to 
support. It is his pride to distinguish himself as a man 
of great penetration, by discovering something new 
which nobody else had ingenuity to see. Not what a 
text plainly says, but what ingenious construction may 
make it seem to mean, is the work of such conventions. 
To this instinctive emulation for sagacity, we owe all 
the dogmas of Christianity which Jesus did not preach. 


286 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


Warnings enough were given by the apostles, that men 
would arise who would substitute false doctrines for the 
truth. This pride of being learned, rather than de¬ 
voutly honest, has generated most of the metaphysical 
dogmas that do violence to the reason of this age, which 
embarrass our religion, and fertilize the growth of infi¬ 
delity. If we have been led astray by theologic 
councils, we should get judges from a different class to 
give us safer guidance hereafter. 

Protestants repudiate the Council of Trent, that con¬ 
demned their doctrines; yet they bow to the similar 
councils of Nice and Constantinople, that condemned the 
doctrine of the unity of God, and adopted the three 
personal Gods, metaphysically making one Deity, ac¬ 
cording to the heathen. • Is there any reason why we 
may not review these councils, as well as the Council 
of Trent ? Let us pray that, in the review that is surely 
coming, if we do not compel more than a review, we 
may have sense, instead of subtlety, in the reviewers. 
Let us hope that what is no longer possible of belief 
will be interpreted out, as it was interpreted in; and 
that nothing will be substituted without the assurance 
that it will meet with acceptance from the great reason¬ 
ing mind of the age, which we are educating to 
examine, and hold fast what passes the ordeal of critical 
investigation. If faith is to take root, it must be ad¬ 
justed to the intellect of the age. 

The great inquiry should be, “ Will people give it 
hearty faith ? ” That Christianity may take on new 
life, be born again, and begin a new round of usefulness 
in the suppression of evil and the promotion of good, as 
well as in binding men in closer fellowship around an 
altar of greater unity and of warmer aspirations. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 287 


DISCREPANCIES REQUIRING REVIEW AND MORE 
PLAIN STATEMENT. 

The mission of the Saviour, as stated by himself 
when he first proclaimed it (Luke iv. 18) in open syna¬ 
gogue, has the remarkable peculiarity of omitting the 
leading objects we attach to it. The Jews were expect¬ 
ing the Messiah, but he did not claim that office. He 
did not announce that he came to offer himself a sin- 
offering for all mankind. He claimed to be a prophet 
anointed by God to preach the gospel to the poor, &c. 
He did not claim to be miraculously conceived by the 
Holy Ghost. On the contrary, when the people inti¬ 
mated, that, being a son of Joseph the carpenter, they 
could not receive him as a prophet, instead of denying 
the paternity, he said it was a proverb, that where a 
man’s parentage is known he is never received as a 
prophet. 

Here was an occasion where it seems incredible that 
he did not correct their mistake, and thus remove the 
obstacle to faith. It is proof, that, during the thirty 
years of his life, the neighbors who knew him and his 
father, and his father, mother, sisters, and brothers, 
who are named by them in another place, never had 
heard of this son being generated differently from the 
rest. From what source did Luke discover it, thirty 
years after his death, if nobody in Nazareth knew it? 

It is almost proof that some after-writer added it to 
Luke’s Gospel; for Luke could not have let this singu- 


288 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


lar silence on such an occasion pass without a reason for 
it, had he known of the miraculous conception. Cer¬ 
tainly it was not Christ’s gospel preached by himself at 
that time. Yet it was exactly the fit occasion to make 
the announcement. But he never announced it at any 
time. It is not given us by himself at all ; and it is 
therefore of inferior authenticity, especially as half of 
the evangelists omit it, considering their Gospels perfect 
without it. In Matt. xi. 11, Jesus could not so un¬ 
dervalue himself, as to say that no one ever was born 
superior to John the Baptist. 

John Baptist (Matt. xi. 3, Luke vii. 9) is repre¬ 
sented as having sent messengers to Christ to know if 
he claimed to be the Messiah. Tjiis casts doubt upon 
the story of the Holy Spirit’s proclamation before John 
at the baptism, and of John’s compliments. John could 
not have inquired of what he had already been told by 
Heaven. 

To fulfill the terms of prophecy, one of the mjiin 
things Jesus was urged to do was to relieve the Jews 
of the Roman government that ruled over them, and to 
set himself up as King of Israel. He acknowledged 
that this was his mission ; and he assured them that he 
would fulfill it, and then he would make his disciples 
rulers over Israel. He began by telling people to refuse 
to pay tribute to the Roman government. John xi. 48 
shows that people were alarmed that his revolutionary 
speeches would bring destruction upon the Jewish people. 
Luke says some advised him to go away and be still, or 
Herod would kill him. He defied Herod, claiming to 
be a prophet of Israel, and beyond perishing in that 
way. John xi. 48 says that the high priest was 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 289 


alarmed, and conceived the idea of appeasing the anger 
of the Roman government by at once delivering Jesus 
up, “ for it is expedient that one man should die for the 
people, so that the whole nation do not perish.” Jesus 
was alarmed at this threat, and fled into concealment. 

So far as the ordinary reading goes, this appears to be 
the origin of the idea that he was to die for all mankind, 
— one man to be a ransom for all. 

Luke xiii. 35 says Jesus promised to be present him¬ 
self in three days, when they should say, “ Blessed is 
he who cometh in the name of the Lord.” Matthew 
gives this in a different connection. Luke xix. 11 says 
the new kingdom would be immediately proclaimed at 
Jerusalem. 

It appears from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that every 
preparation was made for the triumphal entry of Jesus 
into Jerusalem; and people were provided with palm- 
brnnches to place in the road for him to ride over after 
the manner of conquerors. An ass was provided and 
drapery, and on this he was mounted. All his followers 
gathered in force, and proclaimed him king, as he passed 
in triumph, with hosannahs, exclaiming, “ Blessed is 
He who cometh in the name of the Lord! ” Luke 
says some were greatly alarmed at this attempted revolt, 
and appealed to him to put a stop to their proclamation. 
He declined; for, if the people should cease, the very 
stones would proclaim him King. John shows us, that 
Jesus, finding the thing did not succeed, fled and con¬ 
cealed himself. The four evangelists agree that this 
revolution was attempted in the way we state.. 

After the failure of this attempt, Jesus saw that he 
would have to pay the penalty of the law by crucifixion ; 

19 


290 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


and he knew his disciples so well that he plainly told 
them that they would deny him, and leave him to liis 
fate. Judas may have partaken of the fear that per¬ 
vaded the Jews generally, and let Jesus know his dis¬ 
approval of the revolutionary attempt, as he had before 
chided him for wasting costly ointment upon his person. 
Jesus knew Judas was against him. This explains how 
Judas may have taken the view of those who thought it 
best to let Jesus suffer the penalty of the law, and thus 
save the whole Jewish nation from suffering on account 
of his imprudence. The abandonment makes it proba¬ 
ble that every one of the other disciples took the same 
view. Judas is accused of having shown the place 
where Jesus usually was at night, though certainly 
well known. The rest appear to have feared to testify 
in favor of Jesus at his trial; for they denied having his 
acquaintance, lest it might involve them as accomplices. 
Their attempts to make out what Judas did as worse 
than their own behavior seems to be to cover their own 
disgrace. Between them, fair comparison fails to see 
any such extravagant disproportions as have become 
popular. Each one helped in his own .way the fatal 
result of a common and equally disgraceful apostacy and 
desertion. 

A French philosopher says the gibbet is a species of 
flattery. Now and then we hang a man to make the 
rest of us believe we are virtuous. Judas appears to 
have been morally gibbeted to make eleven associate 
apostles appear innocent. 

John says Judas abandoned Jesus because he lost 
faith in his Master. Jesus says Judas had to do this 
for the fulfillment of the prophecy. It appears that 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 291 


Judas was the only one who did not deny having been 
a disciple. It is not unlikely, that, being the best known, 
he was obliged by the officers of the law to go with them 
and identify Jesus. It is again mentioned, that people 
said if was best to let one man be given up to save the 
nation from the wrath of the Romans. (On account of 
the attempted insurrection.) 

The attempted revolution makes it clear that Jesus 
admitted it to be a requirement of prophecy that the 
Messiah should deliver the Jews from bondage to Rome, 
and that he should be their temporal king, as David 
was. It explains literally what was meant by the new 
kingdom, and the office of judges promised to his dis¬ 
ciples. It is remarkable, that, while the disciples left 
him to his fate, Pilate alone did all he could to save 
him, apparently trying to make light of the insurrection¬ 
ary movement, as weak and fanatical. 

If we read it as other histories, Jesus did not, in the 
crucifixion, offer himself as a voluntary sacrifice for the 
sins of the world. For it is argued, that, but for Judas, 
he would have escaped. And he prayed that God 
would let him escape the threatened infliction. Even 
on the cross he seemed to have faith that God would 
yet save him; and finding no prospect, at last com¬ 
plained aloud that God also had forsaken him. (Matthew 
and Mark.) What he suffered for was clearly stated 
and briefly written upon his cross ; viz., because he at¬ 
tempted to revolutionize the government, and make him¬ 
self king of the Jews. “We have no king but 
Caesar,” was the cry. It is clearly shown that his cru¬ 
cifixion was far from being voluntary. With all our 
reverence for his character and doctrines., we find tno 


292 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


sufficient evidence that he believed himself miraculously 
generated, nor that the orthodox doctrine of the atone¬ 
ment is justified by the narrative. His life was a forced 
expiation of his own legal crime against the State, 
which others promoted to save the nation from a general 
calamity, which his acts were likely to bring upon them 
all if not so expiated. 

Heb. v. 2, 3 informs us that Jesus had his weak¬ 
nesses, and that his crucifixion was to expiate his own 
sins, as well as those of the people. 

We can not find from the narrative any reason to 
doubt that it was fear, and not malice, that induced the 
Jews to urge his execution. 

We are obliged to concede that the abandonment of 
his disciples makes it impossible that they could have 
believed Jesus was God incarnate. They believed, no 
doubt, that he was the promised Messiah, which was to 
be a man from the loins of David; but even this belief 
was shaken when the attempted proof so signally failed, 
and cost him his life. As the history stands, the career 
of Jesus, and all his miracles and prophetic references, 
ended in failure to secure belief, even in his nearest, 
most attached, and longest instructed : they who saw all 
the miracles were, after all, the greatest infidels! And 
Peter, the chief, added oaths to his recantations, to show 
himself the greatest infidel of them all! It shows that 
all the miracles were of no account for their alleged 
purpose of creating certain belief in the mission of 
Jesus. It confirms suspicion that they are legendary 
fabrications. 

We thus present the case in order that the necessity 
may appear for a review of our four gospels, and for 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL, 293 


the formation of one new and condensed gospel, which 
will present a better show of probability, and a better 
foundation for whatever new dogmas may be originated 
to replace those which have gone into and are going into 
general disbelief. That we may have better unity and 
stronger faith in some acceptable doctrines, for the 
better repression of evil, and promotion of good. 


INCREDIBLE LEGENDS. 

If, from whatever cause, a historian has evidently 
been led into one error, his whole narrative invites 
review. 

The story of the temptation of Jesus by the Devil is 
of this character. Here, evil is invested with person¬ 
ality. The shrewdness of Satan is belied by making 
him as silly as to suppose he could get Jesus to believe 
in his ownership of the earth, and that any thing could 
tempt the Son of God to worship the father of lies. 
The nameless mountain, exceedingly high, from which 
the Devil showed all the kingdoms of the world at a 
glance, is an impossibility. 

The story is clearly a legend, which was in some 
extant tradition known to all the evangelists. 

Mark shows sounder judgment than others, by reject¬ 
ing the impossible particulars. John refused it even 
mention. But Matthew and Luke evince defect of judg¬ 
ment, by copying it with all its impossibilities, without 
the excuse of any purpose effected. Let us hope that 


294 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


the amplifications are interpolated. Theology seeks to 
cover the impossible, by saying that all the kingdoms of 
the world mean the land of Judea. This evasion would, 
turn the Deluge into a small affair. It makes a mockery 
of all revelation. It takes from all gospel words that 
fixed and certain significance, without which there is no 
meaning to revelation. If ever our gospels are recon¬ 
structed, Christianity will gain by omitting this offense 
to reason, this stumbling-block to faith; together with 
the story of the Devil in the swine, and others of like 
incredible character and aimless purpose. If we can not 
plead interpolation, we can give them conversion by 
interpretation. 


THE ATONEMENT. 

The doctrine of the atonement is not in the Gospels, 
as it is in our theology. We have shown plainly what 
Jesus died for. The effect of the doctrine of atonement 
we believe to be of questionable good. If we hope to 
shirk personal responsibility by the sufferings of some 
innocent person in our stead, it is hard to see how this 
hope advances virtue or represses vice. The Hebrew 
prophets repudiated the Mosaic dogma from which ours 
confesses derivation, and in its stead substituted a better, 
viz., every soul shall suffer for its own sins. 

No reasoning, and no respect for old notions, can ever 
reconcile the contradictions involved in our dogma. 
Divested of theologic obfuscation, it amounts to this: — 

1st, The children in your neighborhood have been 
always offending you. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 295 


2d, Your anger can only be appeased in one way,— 
by sending your only son to be murdered by them! 

3d, If they cap their crimes by this additional crime, 
you will pardon the miscreants for ever after ! 

If this were told as a tale of satisfied vengeance, ob¬ 
tained by the miscreants for your angry denunciations, it 
would be intelligible. 

The dogma of sacrificial atonement is expressly com¬ 
plained of by many of our highest divines as a stum¬ 
bling-block to honest faith; and as it surely is not 
essential to make men good, nor to repress evil, we may 
safely reconsider its claims to being scripture truth. 
Every dogma that serves doubtful purpose staggers 
belief, uses up time and talent to defend, and stands in 
the way of more profitable doctrine that may be substi¬ 
tuted. And, in this age of infidelity, we need to prove 
all things, and retain only what will command general 
faith and effective conversion. 


IGNORED DOCTRINES AND EXAMPLES OF JESUS. 

“ If ye love me, keep my commandments.” 

We offer some examples to prove that it has always 
been the practice of Christianity, as it is and ever will 
be of all religions, to cull out from the Gospels whatever 
we find inconvenient of belief or practice. This license 
begets another, viz., the invention of new doctrines by 
cunning veneering and varnishing of scripture phrases. 
It goes to shp>v that religion is for man’s varying spirit- 


296 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


ual aspirations, and must be subservient to such changes; 
that it is no irreverence for an enlightened age to dis- 
miss dogmas which have served the religious purposes 
of peoples in ages of ignorance long gone by; that the 
law of progressive development is inherent also in reli¬ 
gion, and that its permanence depends on the wise fore¬ 
sight we exercise in making it conform to the spirit of 
the age. 

Metempsychosis. — It is evident that the apostles were 
taught by Jesus that the souls of men, after having lived 
in one body, enter into new bodies in this world, and 
live over again. Matt, xvi., Mark viii., Luke ix., give 
proof of this. And Matt. xi. 13, 14 confirms it; also 
Matt. xvii. 23, Mark ix. 11, 13. 

Jesus said that John Baptist was Elias come back to 
earth, according to the prophecy which required this 
literal fulfillment. We have no dogma so easy to make 
out as this of the transmigration of the soul, nor any 
that so invites us. But it does not suit us ; so we ignore 
it. Repeatedly has Jesus told the people that he would 
perform no miracles; that he could only give them 
spiritual bread, and not bread for bodily food. Many 
times we find him telling people that they must not tell 
of his being Messiah ; yet we believe he did miracles, 
and their object was to make known what he desired 
not to be known. If we are to retain our present faith 
regarding these matters, and revision be admissible, 
consistency would be gained by some amendments to 
the record. 

If there is any thing strikingly clear, Jesus, according 
to Matthew, in his Sermon upon the Mount (chapter 5), 
pronounces against Moses and his doctrine, as not au- 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 297 

thorized by tlie God who inspired Jesus. “ Ye have 
heard that it hath been said by them of olden time, an 
eye for an eye, &c.; but I say unto you,” &c. He pro¬ 
claims that the law of God is the opposite to the law of 
Moses. He virtually condemns Moses, and the whole 
religion founded upon his false doctrines ; and he con¬ 
firms it by giving new and opposite doctrines for our 
guidance, which necessitate repudiation and unbelief in 
Moses. There are six counts in the indictment. Luke, 
probably from delicacy to the Jews, refused to give 
these denunciations of Moses a place in his record of the 
new teaching. But he tells us that the laws of Moses 
and the prophets lapsed when John announced the new 
religion of the kingdom of God. (Luke xvi. 16.) 

Jesus, however, when asked to naime the command¬ 
ments to be kept, selected some of the Mosaic, and 
'adopted them in his new religion, thus repudiating the 
rest. The sabbath-day law is ejected from the list. (Matt, 
xix. 18 ; Mark x. 19; Luke xviii. 20.) If we were 
so disposed, we have here stronger justification than for 
other dogmas, if not a clear command, to relieve Christi¬ 
anity from the dead weight of Judaism, which, like try¬ 
ing to make a new house out of an old one, brings us 
no profit, but continual contradiction and embarrassment. 

But the selections of Christ do not satisfy theology, 
because he put away the sabbath, and theology thinks 
he should not have done so. Jesus taught and practiced 
community of goods : we laugh at the few sects of Chris¬ 
tians, that, in conscience, try to follow his example. He 
spoke kindly of circumcision, as being older then Moses, 
and he was himself so treated; but we do not fancy the 
institution, though it was taught by St. Peter, his chief 


298 


THE GOSPEL OE GOOD AND EVIL. 


disciple, and extensively practiced, as a part of liis 
religion, by the earliest Christians. 

“ Why call ye me Lord, and do not what I say 1 ” 

From the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. v. and vi.), we 
extract some further laws, from the mouth of Jesus 
himself, which we have entirely repudiated. In fact, to 
speak truthfully and plainly, we do condemn them as 
impracticable; and, doing so, we condemn him and his 
celestial claims. It is a denial of his divine wisdom 
and authority, viz.: — 

1. Evil must not be resisted nor returned. 

2. Oaths must not be taken. 

3. We must love our enemies the same as our friends: 
for God treats alike the just and the unjust; and, if we 
do the same, we shall all be sons of God. 

4. No Christian must offer up (prayer or other) gift 
to God while he has enmity with any one. He must 
first settle his quarrels, and then pray. 

5. No Christian must save money, but spend as he 
goes. 

6. Nor must Christian people care about what dress 
they wear! 

7. If charity is given, you must carefully abstain from 
mentioning it even to intimate friends; and take care 
that it is not published. 

8. A Christian prayer must be short. Let heathens 
make long prayers, telling in detail their wants. But 
the Christian must consider that God knows all his 
wants. Therefore prayer should be confined to about 
sixty-five words according to Matthew, and less accord¬ 
ing to Luke. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 299 


9. Who marries a woman once divorced, commit- 
teth adultery. — Matt. v. 32, and xix. 9 ; Luke xvi. 18 ; 
Mark x. 11. 

10. Christians must lend their money without taking 
interest. — Luke vi. 34, 35. 

11. A new commandment is added, without which no 
man can be perfected for heaven: u Sell all thou hast, 
and give to the poor.” 

12. To these condemned commandments may be 
added another; viz., that given to the apostles to prac¬ 
tice washing each other’s feet (in token of love and 
humility). — John xiii. 14 only. The Emperor of Aus¬ 
tria performs this duty yearly in public. The command 
to practice the communion rests also on the authority of 
only one evangelist (Luke xxii. 19). 

To this list we may add a doctrine of the greatest 
consequence, given by Mark xi. 25, 26, most clearly, 
viz.: That all men will be forgiven their sins when they 
forgive the offenses of their fellow-men; and that, until 
this is done, no man can be saved. 

Some of the dogmas that now form the pillars of 
popular faith might be profitably withdrawn to make 
place for this doctrine. If all our leading dogmas could 
be suppressed for a time, and this last were to be 
enforced by all the power of eloquence idly expended 
on them, let it not be doubted that we should be a bet¬ 
ter people, more creditable to Christianity, more enno¬ 
bling to ourselves, and more acceptable to God. Jesus 
surely left us neither example nor authority for the 
forms and ceremonies, the reading-system of prayers and 
sermons, so inferior to his examples, nor for our system 


300 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


of educating boys to be apostles of bis religion, instead 
of selecting from inspired talent that offers ; nor yet for 
our mode of salaries. But his example does not suit 
us, and we find ourselves obliged to substitute systems 
quite at variance with his. Jesus not only taught, but 
required, us to repudiate and desert our parents, or we 
can not be Christians. We have not deferred to his 
commands. We should entreat badly any one who 
would venture to follow his doctrine in this particular. 
Peter, Paul, Barnabas, James, John, and Diotrephes, 
and many others, when Christian doctrines were fresh 
from the lips of Jesus, assumed each to make out con¬ 
tending doctrines from the same religious source, to suit 
the different peoples they had to convert. For centu¬ 
ries after, it was also the practice, to the time of the 
ecclesiastic councils, that, amid much contention, enforced 
a certain uniformity. But the manv subdivisions of 

t/ «/ 

sectaries thereafter shows, that, after all, Christians will 
instinctively invent their own doctrines. 

We might enlarge this enumeration ; but we have 
given enough for our purpose, which is to show, that as 
our religion has always allowed latitude for the accom¬ 
modation of doctrine to the instinctive demands of the 
times and of the peoples, that it is our privilege and our 
duty to keep alive religious faith and efficiency by simi¬ 
lar provisions. When we find the gales of progress 
carrying away the people, should we let our religion 
stay fast at the deserted anchorage ? Rather should we 
not hasten to weigh the anchor, crowd sail, and make 
for the new port to which the commerce is being trans¬ 
ferred? 

“ We must take the current when it serves. 

Or lose our ventures.”— Shakspeare. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL 301 


THE TEST OF TRUE RELIGION. 

“Pure religion before God is this, — to visit the widow and the 
fatherless, and to keep unspotted from the world.” —Jas. i. 27. 

St. Paul says, prove all things, and hold fast that 
which is good. Be ever ready to give reasons for your 
belief. 

The apostle believed, and therefore he invited free 
inquiiy. It is the pewter shilling that fears inspection, 
the counterfeit note that shrinks from scrutiny. If there 
be any universal law to give safe decision between truth 
and error, it is this, viz., that one invites the light, the 
other courts the shade. The true diamond suffers never 
from excess of light. The greater the light and the 
scrutiny, the more the luster proves the jewel. So the 
rosy cheek of beauty, the exuberant hair and pearly 
teeth of Nature, do court the gaze of men. But where 
art doth counterfeit Nature, how impertinent the gaze 
of scrutiny, how unpardonable the suspicion it betrays ! 

Every thing that is true in the realms of the Creator, 
from the starry heavens to the tiniest shell of the deep, 
invites our scrutiny: the closer we look, the more we 
admjre. 

It is a fixed maxim in science and philosophy, that 
free discussion is the safeguard of truth; that error is 
fostered when reason is not free to expose it. 

Theologians hold the same doctrine to be applicable, 
in its fullest extent, to the moral maxims and the plainly- 
spoken doctrines of our Saviour. These become brighter 
by every ray of light which discussion can throw upon 


302 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


them. But there is a class of dogmas which all publish¬ 
ing-houses combine, under pressure of the Church, to 
shield from discussion. These are doctrines which 
Christ did not formulate, and that can only be formu¬ 
lated by expressions which are not to be found in Scrip¬ 
ture. And they are precisely the causes of the infidelity 
and intolerance which condemn the tree by the evil 
fruit it bears. The test of true religion is its love of 
light; the test of counterfeit religion is its love of dark¬ 
ness. By these tests the judgment of this age will try 
them. 

Thanks be to God, we can separate the two elements. 
We can eject what shrinks from the test of truth ; and 
certainly we can do it without parting with a single pre¬ 
cept that is conducive to virtue. In consigning the 
counterfeit to the shade it courts, we consign to oblivion 
all cause of uncharitable dissension, we conquer un¬ 
belief, and we give new life and unity to fervent Chris¬ 
tianity. We do not believe that, the clearly-spoken 
portion of God’s truth which invites inquiry is not a 
safe guide to lead us to the gates of heaven. 


TURNING EVIL INTO GOOD. 

“ Who hath not known ill fortune, never knows 
Himself nor his own virtue.” 

In the autumn of 1857, “ a crisis ” in America, which 
made sudden changes in fortune, overshadowed our owm 
pretentious mansion. 


God of the just, thou gavest the bitterness : 
We bowed to thy behest, and drank it up.” 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 303 


The first shock passed with habitual philosophy; we 
made survey of our new position ; and, after the man¬ 
ner of Jeremy Taylor, we took account of what was 
* left. 

As the enumeration went on, we were amazed to find 
how much the gain surpassed the loss. And it began to 
be evident that loss of fortune is not ruin. 

The light heart, the kindly smile, the cheerful spirit, 
we had cut, called to renew the acquaintance. The in-* 
nocent prattle that was a disturber of calculation be¬ 
came again cherub-music to the ear ; and hearts that 
mammon cares had kept distant drew closer than 
before. Sure we must have erst been deaf to sweet 
sounds, or our caged songsters greeted us with matin 
welcome more joyous than of yore. Our faithful dog? 
too, — surely his caresses were ardent beyond their 
measure. 

Appetite asked, What’s o’clock ? and the bankrupt-list 
gave no poison to our breakfast. No one owed us any 
thing! Long-banished sleep came back, and with it 
dreams of pleasure without its gilded cares. Our 
wakening became refreshing, restored health our hand¬ 
maid ; digestion waited on appetite, our nerves grew 
firm, and equanimity resumed its scepter. 

Going forth, we found the broad earth open as ever to 
our walks, its fields more green, its flowers sweeter, than 
aforetime. . 

Tlie sunshine, the starry heavens, the balmy air, the 
music of running water, the song of birds, the gambols 
of youngling herds, seedtime and harvest, and a con¬ 
fiding trust in heaven, — all these still were ours, with 
quickened senses to know their worth. And as specta- 


304 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


tors, tenfold greater than our own jaunting, we enjoyed 
the crowded pageant, as it rolled along the circuit, each 
equipage apparently putting on its best for our gratifica¬ 
tion. 

In happy mood we thought of the many times we had 
said in our troubled heart, we would give our fortune to 
known again that health and peace of mind which had 
forsaken us. And now the blessing has come, shall we 
not rate it at its value ? What if the gold is gone ! the 
copper left buys more enjoyment. 

Put us back where we were, and, had we a million, 
we would so invest it to pay an interest like this. 

Before God, were it offered to-day, we should refuse 
to re-exchange the blessings we have gained for the gold 
we have lost, in this lottery of life. 

They have taken but trifles, and, instead, have left us 
treasures. Thus wisely seen, doth Providence send ap¬ 
parent evils for our greater good. 

Good friend! Give sometime study to the unwritten 
laws of heaven, and you will have a new revelation 
more valuable than the old. 

The word of God speaks daily to his children. If 
they will but hearken, it will reveal the secret of content¬ 
ment, which no pulpit preaches. 

Believe not that the word of God is a fount which 
was exhausted time ago; but be assured it is a spring 
which floweth ever, and he who lists may drink. Who 
drinks it freshest finds most healing in its waters; and, 
better than from theology, seek from the hand of God 
himself the living waters of his grace ! 

Thou art a child of God ; thy soul is of his breath. 
Ask of thy Father, day by day, and his revelations will 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 305 

have no ending, nor will they need the speech of man 
to give them understanding. 

Then be assured, that, when evil comes, the bitter 
chalice will turn to sweetness on thy grateful lips ! 


DIVERSION OF EVIL. 

“ An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” 

Physical evils we are content to take as established 
laws, — floods, lightning, and epidemics. We *do not 
resort to prayer, nor to legislation, in hopes of changing 
the climate of England, or of forcing the sun to shine 
more brightly. Instead of fighting the elements, we 
divert them. By draining, we divert the flood ; by con¬ 
ducting-rods, we divert the lightning from our path ; and, 
by disinfectants, we avert miasma from the lungs. 

If physical evils are elements in the constitution of 
the earth, there must be conforming moral disturbances. 
A man’s morals are inseparably connected with his 
brain-work. Put brandy in his head, and this will 
appear. 

If it be the task of governments to cure the disease of 
crime, why is it not worthy of their thoughts to treat 
moral evils by the same avertive means that prove suc¬ 
cessful in physical ? 

In Paris, the prevention of crime is a science which 
has been brought to a high degree of perfection. The 
city is covered with moral lightning-rods. Highway 
robbers, housebreakers, pickpockets, street-rowdies, 
20 


306 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


drunkards, beggars, ruffians, are almost unknown. 
Even cabmen find it their interest to be honest; so that, 
if you leave behind any thing of value, you will almost 
surely find it at the prefecture of police next day. 

As an iron ship turns forked into sheet lightning, by 
giving it diffusion, so Paris, by having wine in cheap 
and plentiful flow over all, gives to the tippling appetites 
of men harmless gratification. Every man, every 
woman, drinks ; but none stagger. 

The government makes it a primary duty to supply 
amusements in such variety, abundance, and cheap¬ 
ness, that everybody finds something to win him from 
gmmbltng solitude to happy thoughts and cheerful chat¬ 
tering. In out-door amusements this general exhilara¬ 
tion is shown in the universal disposition to be pleased 
with every thing and every body; so that a glass of 
weak country wine suffices to bring one’s spirits to the 
oblivion of care, which in England would require deep 
potations of brandy. 

This great moraj conservation finds its largest and 
most valuable dispensation on Sunday, because on that 
day most people find the only opportunity of receiving 
it. Alas for the toiling millions of England, that by 
departing from the faith of their fathers, and of all 
other Christians in Europe, the vice-breeding austerity 
of the Mosaic sabbath has been brought back from the 
banishment to which Christ consigned it; and the inno¬ 
cent diversion which the Saviour won for their weary- 
laden souls is taken from them by misguided public 
sentiment! Let them be assured, that, till they compel 
the restoration of their rights of enjoying Sunday re¬ 
creation and anti-drinking diversion, they will remain, 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 307 


as now, a proverb among nations, — stuffy, grumbling, 
quarreling, drinking Englishmen! 

We have said that Paris succeeded in the prevention 
of certain leading crimes. But Paris furnishes at the 
same time a curious illustration of this truth, viz., that 
evil is a providential provision, necessary to give pro¬ 
pulsion to the moral world, as centrifugal force is to 
drive the globe in its circuit. 

There is just enough, be assured, for this service, and 
no more. The Creator is a perfect mechanic, and pro¬ 
portions every power with nicety to its purpose. He 
makes every branch of his works correct its own oscil¬ 
lations as it goes along. The equilibrium of moral evil 
which is disturbed in Paris by this moral draining and 
conducting is restored and counterbalanced by an 
equivalent increase of small peccadilloes and peculations. 
Evil is not diminished; but the wicked-looking flood 
which is drained off from one direction is transmuted 
into less terrible forms, and redistributed by Satan, on 
the Frenchman’s own principles. Instead of big evils, 
confined to a certain number of transgressive agents, 
there is minute subdivision into smaller evils, of which 
every one takes a share. Thus a distribution is made 
of the functions of evil, which better equalizes the com¬ 
mission. As the iron ship takes from the thunderbolt its 
destructive force by flattening it out into sheet-lead, 
instead of balls as it were, so this process turns con¬ 
centrated crimes into expansive peccadilloes. It is a 
famishing hunger shared off into a hundred little ap¬ 
petites ; consumption averted by free and copious ex¬ 
pectoration. 

There is a vast deal less of what is termed robbery 


308 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


in Paris; but from the cook to the highest dignitary, from 
the huckster to the silk-mercer, there is a universal sys- 
tem of small cheating, almost nullified, however, by 
politeness. 

In social life, the moral world, deprived of needful 
propulsion by turning off the larger evils, obtains an 
equivalent excitation from the universal and unceasing 
activity of sub-crinoline involutions. From the chif¬ 
fonier to the minister at the altar, every one has his 
affair of the heart; and maidens are rarer than black 
swans. The social evil that runs riot in London is in 
Paris perfectly enfenced by law; so that, while it affords 
to society all the protection that is its design, it is de¬ 
prived of its repulsive features without, and of its retrib¬ 
utive severity within. 

French transmutations of evil have this advantage, 
viz., that they give less offense to the conscience. 
With as much moral decorum as possible, the little 
wants and natural twitchings of human weakness are 
met half-way, and so compromised, that under the as¬ 
suaging of universal custom, which holds that all 
Nature’s calls are alike entitled to response, the confes¬ 
sional does not class among the catalogue of mortal 
sins what we consider the awfulest of all. A French 
lady excuses a priest for intimacy with her cousin: 
“ Poor priests ! you know they can’t marry ; so, of 
course, .they are obliged to have other arrangements.” 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 309 


SOCIAL EVILS OF WOMEN. 

Modern Christianity is'behind some other extant reli¬ 
gions in the moral science of converting evil into good. 
The Church gives itself over to theory over much, and 
too little to practical means of making people content 
and happy in their social relations. 

The present condition of the women of Christendom 
is an example. If our religion would do for society 
what it seems reasonable to ask, we should not have 
been allowed to drift into the present terrible social mis- 
arrangement, which shuts out women from wedlock, and 
keeps them ever in straitened employment and neces¬ 
sitous temptation. 

Religious contrivance, administration, and emolument 
are altogether in the hands of men: they preach to 
women subjection, faith, and sustenance of the Church. 
They inveigh against their innocent fashions and frivol¬ 
ities, and give them only long-dated promises of -better¬ 
ment, after their life-struggles have worried them into 
the tomb. 

Is it impracticable to make our religion an improve¬ 
ment on others, in at least one thing, by incorporating 
into it some system for the social advancement of 
women ? 

We will not believe it. Rather will we pronounce it 
a defect, a sin, and a *shame of modern Christianity, that 
it finds no correction of this great social and spiritual 
evil. And we present it to the consideration of all good 
men, with an earnest prayer that they give their minds 
to the correction. 


310 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


Resignation is indeed a great transmuter of evil; but 
of this women have from nature more than their share, 
while in men our religion does almost nothing for its 
cultivation. Here and there it is mixed up in theologic 
sermons perhaps ; but there is no system of practical and 
convincing appeal to men’s understanding, which teaches 
the true doctrine, that material losses, properly consid¬ 
ered, are in general spiritual gains. 

Not until the teachers of religion themselves under¬ 
stand the true providence of evil, and get rid of the 
erroneous ideas they so unprofitably hold regarding its 
providential purposes, can they be qualified for the 
task. 


THE MISCHIEF OF OUR GLOOMY SUNDAY. 

“Let no man judge you respecting sabbath days.”— St. Paul. 

Experience proves the utility of one day of recreation 
in every seven. Nature has marked the night as the 
appropriate time for rest; and for rest alone, it is suffi¬ 
cient. But, for recreation, the day is the time. The 
working multitude have no day except Sunday. “ But 
that is the sabbath ! ” 

What law forbids innocent recreation on the sabbath ? 
No law of the Old Testament or of the New. The 
founder of our religion rebuked the strictness imposed 
by the Jews in its observance, even in respect to labor. 
His office was to give us a new dispensation, a new reli¬ 
gion, to take the place of the old which he denounced. 

If we do all that Jesus commanded as necessary to 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 311 


salvation, i will be admitted that we do quite enough ; 
and he who manufactures additions to the Saviour’s com¬ 
mandments is infidel and apostate. Let him be ac¬ 
cursed who- forges an additional sin to the catalogue, 
making that a crime which is in itself innocent. Such 
a one is, of all traitors and infidels, the most sacrilegious 
contemner of the gospel of Christ. 

Now, there is no commandment in the New Testa¬ 
ment to abstain from work on Sunday, nor to keep it 
otherwise than other days, nor to transfer the Jewish 
sabbath to Christianity at all. On the contrary, in 
Luke xviii. 20, Jesus names all the commandments ne¬ 
cessary to salvation : no sabbath is among them. They 
are repeated in Matt. xxx. 18, 19, without the sab¬ 
bath ; Rom. xiii. 8, 9, and xiv. 4, 5, enumerates all, 
and says there are no more; but no sabbath ! Acts 
xv. 24 - 28, and xxi. 25, expressly declares what por¬ 
tion of the Mosaic law is to be retainedthe sabbath is 
omitted. St. Paul, in Tit. i. 10, 11, complains of 
Christian priests for preaching up Jewish austerities for 
filthy lucre. St. Paul goes further: he cautions us to 
allow no man to impose the sabbath upon us. (Coloss, 
xi. 19.) This passage Bishop White pronounced 
decisive against any sabbath being obligatory upon us. 
Archbishop Paley, Archbishop Whately, Bishops 
Aylmar, Warburton, Ironsides, and many other high 
ecclesiastical authorities, gave the same decision. 

The Nestorians and the Armenians, who are the oldest 
sects of Christianity, and who have ever lived nearest to 
its cradle in Palestine, are least likely to stray far from its 
primitive teachings, especially as they are not a change¬ 
ful people. These people observe “ the Lord’s day ” as 


312 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


a holy day, on Sunday, but they do not call it sabbath. 
— Rev. Justin Perkins. 

Curiously enough, the English, and their descendants 
in America, who are the farthest removed from the first 
seat of Christianity, are the only Christians who apply 
the Jewish name and the Jewish law of Saturday to 
Sunday, the Lord’s day. 

Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Trypho the Jew, 
says, “ You see the heavens are not idle, nor do they 
observe the sabbath. If before Abraham there was no 
need of sabbaths, so now, in like manner, there is no 
need of them since Christ.” — SecTw xxiii. 

We would kindly ask if these evidences are not suffi¬ 
cient to arouse the suspicions of pious minds, that we are 
enforcing a fabricated commandment, by forging the 
name of Jesus? If we are, a terrible sin lies at our 
door. So it behooves'every man to look to it in earnest, 
that at the judgment he may answer to the dread charge 
of forging false doctrines upon Christianity. 

Look in Blackstone’s Commentaries (article Sunday), 
and you will find that Sunday was at that time a civil 
institution altogether ; that the law prohibited work, but 
allowed innocent recreation and amusement, on Sun- 
day. 

It may be mentioned, that in all Christian countries 
(except England and the United States), embracing 
three-fourths of Christendom, the word “ sabbath” is not 
in use except by Jews. Sunday is simply a holy day, 
given to devotion in the morning, and to recreation and 
amusement afterwards. 

In the reigns of Charles I. and James I., the Judaism 
we practice was a schism in England. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 313 


The revival of the Jewish sabbath began A.D. 1595. 
A gloomy fanatic, named Dr. Bound, issued a book that 
pleased the vulgar, representing how grateful it would 
be to God if they would offer him the sacrifice of their 
amusements on Sunday. This curious superstition of 
giving to God what man wants most, and God least, has 
been an engine of mischief among the vulgar in all reli- 

O O O 

gions. 

Unlike the Church to-day, the whole Church of that 
period took a stand against this robbery of the poor, to 
whose health and spirits they alleged that recreation on 
Sunday was an imperious necessity. The archbishop 
destroyed the edition. The lord chief justice forbade 
the printing, as “ teaching new dogmas unauthorized by 
our religion .” 

James I. saw with sorrow what terrible effect the 
gloomy perversion of Sunday had on the health and 
morals of the people, and he used every means to stop 
the progress of the schism. The contest was long and 
bitter among Sabbatarians, Moderates, and anti-Sab¬ 
batarians. Laud, the Bishop of London, took a de¬ 
cided stand against reviving the Jewish sabbath, after 
Christ had abolished it, and the Church had changed the 
day for public devotion, on purpose to prevent any such 
risk of Judaistic revival. 

Seventy-two clergymen addressed a memorial to him, 
imploring him to protect the poor from the unholy rob¬ 
bery. But the Puritans worked with fanatic zeal, by 
day and by night, upon the superstitious prejudices of 
the vulgar, till they prevailed at last in fixing upon 
England the sacrilegious forgery of the commandments 
of Christ, which has brought with it a fearful retribution. 


314 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


The dogma never found favor on the continent, where it 
is viewed as a painful evidence of how our religion runs 
to corruption ; so that it is confined to England and its 
colonies, America included. 

Antiquity sanctions many a dogma which has been 
fastened upon our religion in much the same way ; but 
the spirit of inquiry is awakening, and, if candid Chris¬ 
tians will examine this pernicious dogma, antiquity will 
not long screen other unchristian dogmas from inquiry 
into their origin. 

This subject may be studied by consulting “ Thoughts 
upon the Sabbath,” by Archbishop Whately; and the 
history of this corruption of Christianity may be found 
in Disraeli’s “ Charles I.,” vol. iii. 

Before we rebuke our neighbor for taking pleasure on 
Sunday, it should be our duty to find in the mandates 
of Christ a commandment to justify the reflection. If it 
was desired that an institution of the paramount impor¬ 
tance we attach to this should form a leading feature in 
Christianity, it is quite impossible that no commandment 
of the sort should have been given, that not even a hint 
of the kind should have been uttered by Jesus, or any of 
his apostles. And for the creation of a new day, and 
the transfer of the old austerities to it, not a shadow of 
authority is to be found. 

There is one insuperable objection to the enforced 
engorgement of religion on one day. We appeal to all 
good Christians to say if the practical result is not to 
confine devotion to that one day, when confinement and 
restraint give us no chance to make practical application 
of its principles, and to withhold it from use on the six 
days, when it is in reality most needed, and when there 
is the largest scope for its exercise. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 315 

It is as if we should take all our pepper, salt, and 
seasoning on one day, and have our food without sea¬ 
soning for its digestion during the rest of the week. 
The one is food for the body, the other for the soul. 
And they are so intimate and inseparable in their con¬ 
nection, that the analogy is perfect in its application. The 
body can not digest the condiments of a week in one 
day, and separate from the food that needs their daily 
distribution ; so the soul can not in one day digest the 
spiritual seasoning needed for its wants every day in 
the week. 

Five times every day the Mussulman kneels, and 
offers up a prayer. What an example for the Chris¬ 
tian ! 

But, so long as our system prevails, we shall continue 
to be coldly, dully, and tiresomely religious on one day, 
and exclusively worshipers of mammon and Satan on 
the other days, of the week. 

Not all the preaching that man can take in and digest 
on one day can ever suffice to counteract the accumulated 
evil influences of six days devoted with tenfold fervor 
to adverse distractions. 

Rather let religion be distributed where it can be 
utilized among all our working-days, and give up Sun¬ 
days to innocent recreation, and to the cultivation of the 
social graces, which are hand-maidens of good nature, 
of practical piety, and of Christian benevolence and 
cheerfulness of heart. 


316 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH AT THE JUDGMENT. 

If we engage in enforcing a law of our own making, 
and call it God’s, we do a wickedness and a sacrilege 
that will heap condemnation on our souls. 

If we at all use the words “ the sabbath,” we are 
bound by the Jewish commandment, and every man 
must give an account for his disobedience in not keeping 
Saturday. We may say, that, if we give to God one 
day in seven, he ought to be satisfied, and make no 
question. But the commandment allows no such lati¬ 
tude. There is a special reason given why the sabbath 
must be on the seventh day, and no other. 

We remember an ideal dialogue between an English 
sabbatizing Christian and the heavenly Judge at the 
last day ; which it may give profitable hint to reproduce 
on this occasion. He elected to be judged by the law 
of Christ. 

Judge. — “ There is a dark charge against you of per¬ 
secution against the innocent recreations of your neigh¬ 
bors.” 

Sabbatizer. — w I was trying to make them keep the 
fourth commandment, according to Moses, — the sab¬ 
bath.” 

Judge. — “ That is Jewish, not Christian law. If 
you enforce a law upon your neighbor’s conscience after 
I abrogated it, you have to answer for the sacrilege of 
forging my name to a law of your own devising.” 

Sabbatizer. — “ It was the Church which devised 
and commanded it: it only changed the day God ap- 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 317 


pointed, because the Jew’s day was repugnant to its 
feelings.” 

Judge . — “ The Church ! it is a body without a soul. 
It has passed away, and is not at the judgment to 
answer. In vain you would pass your guilt upon a 
soulless creature. So, Eve! Warnings enough I gave 
you against the beguilements of innovation, teaching 
for lucre. At the judgment every man must answer for 
'his own deeds. Christians are to be judged by the laws 
of Christ, not by the commandments of churches.” 

Sabbatizer .— u If I may seek my defense in the 
Christian Scriptures, I believe I shall be acquitted. You 
intimated that one day should not be more holy than 
another: you condemned the Jewish observance of the 
sabbath, and you gave no commandment for us to keep 
it.” 

Judge. — “ It doubles your guilt to plead the repeal 
of a law which your life was spent in enforcing upon 
your neighbors. You invoked the law of Moses. If 
you are judged by his commandments, you worshiped 
mammon, instead of God, on the sabbath day. If you 
appeal to the law of Christ, you stand guilty of forging 
his name to a commandment that he did not give. He 
went to earth to loosen the bonds of the old law. You 
are guilty of refettering with them the toiling men, the 
burdened women, and the innocent children, taking 
from me the glory, and from them the blessings, of my 
redemption. Depart from me: your portion is with 
the unfaithful! ” 

We have wronged the poor of their rights to recrea¬ 
tion ; and, till we make restorations, we shall continue to 
be scourged by retributive Providence with the evils of 
discontent and intemperance. 


318 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


THE UNIVERSE. 

“ The contemplation of celestial things makes us think more sub¬ 
limely of Deity, and more justly of his moral government.” — Cicero. 

Whatever may have been in past times the limits of 
theologic inquiry, they are about to be greatly enlarged 
by universal education. All extant religious concep¬ 
tions are founded upon the assumption that this world 
alone is inhabited by intelligent life; that God’s moral 
government is not, like his physical, a universal law, but 
only a law specially made for, and confined to, this 
planet. When we speak of special providences, of 
heaven and hell, of sins, of a day of judgment, of 
revelations, of incarnations of God, of moral evil, 
of schemes of salvation, and the like, we think they are 
only for this planet. Some even narrow down 44 the 
true religion ” to one corner of the earth, denying that 
God has provided any religion for the rest. To magnify 
our own importance, we do great injustice to God, by 
making this little planet the great center and crowning 
glory of his creation, instead of an infinitesimal speck 
in the universe, as it is in reality. 

We speak contemptuously of animals, and of 44 mere 
matter,” as though the Creator demeaned himself by 
making them ; not considering that reverence is due to 
every thing the Almighty has sanctified by his touch. 
May we not conceive that every religious man should 
deem it his duty to study the physical revelations which 
God opens to our eyes; that we may know him better, 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 819 


and have some intelligent check upon superstitions that 
tend to give low and unworthy conceptions of the Most 
High, to blind us to the wisdom of his moral laws, and 
to just conceptions of his impartial and all-pervading 
goodness ? 

So far from the sun having been made to light this 
world, we get but the 9(1,000,000,000,000,000 p&rt of the light which 
he distributes through the sphere of this solar system. 
We are but one of many worlds which revolve in com¬ 
pany, and are treated physically as we are ; being alike 
supplied with light, heat, atmospheres, moons, alterna¬ 
tions of night and day, and (except Jupiter) with alter¬ 
nation of seasons. 

Certainly, they are constituted equally with our 
planet for intelligent inhabitants : and whatever we are 
made for, they also; for all are under one law ? and get 
their manner of life from the sun as a common source. 
It is vainly to magnify ourselves to question this. 

To put our claim in the scale of comparison, let us 
see what is our importance among our brother worlds. 
In numbers, there are about one hundred of us. Eight 
of us are of the following sizes: Taking the earth as 
one, Venus is very nearly the same ; Mercury nearly 
six-twentieths; Jupiter is over one thousand four hun¬ 
dred times our size ; Saturn nearly eight hundred times; 
Uranus eighty-six times; Neptune seventy-six times. 
Then a multitude of smaller planets, which we will not 
count. There are, we will say, two thousand five hundred 
proportional planetary masses, of which this earth repre¬ 
sents one in figures. Is it not arrogating to ourselves 
too much importance to claim that this one planet is 
alone the seat qf intelligent life ? that, in all the others, 



320 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


there is none to see and admire the great works of God ? 
It looks like a little man on a bio; brag before men of 
easy credulity. 

Let us consider the sun. If it were made for lighting 
us merely, what a needless waste of material! A very 
small fraction of its volume would have sufficed, as we 
have shown. There is volume enough in our sun to 
make one million four hundred and fifteen thousand of 
our earth. “ Mere matter,” we may call it: but it is 
almighty to us, — God’s vicegerent plenipotentiary ; and 
let us not contemn the devout Persian, who, instead of 
vacancy, contents himself with the belief that the great 
center, whence comes all light and every material gift 
we offer thanks for, is at least one throne, as it surely is 
one distributing entrepot, of the powerful beneficence of 
the great Creator, 

To further enlarge our conceptions of the vastness of 
creation, to enable us to better judge of many of our 
imaginings regarding the government of this little 
planet and the purposes of man’s being here, we will 
look beyond this whole solar system for a lesson of hu¬ 
mility to ourselves, and of higher conceptions to our 
Creator. 

Enormous as is our sun and our great brotherhood of 
worlds, our whole system is but one among millions 
upon millions of self-luminous suns, that do for thou¬ 
sands of millions of other planets exactly what our sun 
is doing for us. We have reason to believe that Sirius 
is sixty times larger than our sun. Many solar systems 
have two mutually revolving suns. 

We speak of what we see; but, beyond our vision, 
\yhat further immensity! It js impossible to con- 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 321 


oeive an ending of its extent, — a place that is empty 

void. 

The distances from sun to sun are so vast, that we can 
only conceive of them by referring, to the length of 
time it takes the light to reach us. Light travels one 
hundred and ninety-two thousand miles in one second of 
time, or nearly seven hundred millions of miles in one 
hour, or more than sixteen thousand millions of miles in 
one day. Sirius, or the dog-star, is the nearest sun to 
ours. His light, traveling at that rate, does not reach 
us in less than three years and eighty days. That is, it 
is 20,000,000,000,000 of miles, or twenty million mil¬ 
lions of miles between sun and sun; and there are mil¬ 
lions of millions of suns. We can conceive of no end 
of space, and no space empty. 

How does our narrow and special theology comport 
with the conceptions thus awakened of the Great Al¬ 
mighty, supreme over this immensity ! 

When we contemplate this vast expanse of suns and 
worlds, how is our conception of the great Creator mag¬ 
nified ! how small is our whole solar system, especially 
this little speck of earth ; and what is man that he is 
minded ! Can we doubt that all this machinery of the 
universe is endowed with self-regulating power to pre¬ 
serve regularity and permanence ? Not less requisite 
in the moral than in the physical government. The 
odd dogmas which theology invents for this planet are 
not reconcilable with any generalization which we can 
conceive applicable to the vast expanse of worlds we 
have been contemplating; nor can we imagine, that, 
instead of one divine lavy for all, there is a special and 
exceptional law for each. 

21 


322 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


The same necessity of motion by contending forces 
exists in all. The same changes and therefore physical 
evils, as we call them, exist in all; and the physical law 
necessitates the same moral law in its essential princi¬ 
ples. And the vast complication renders the self-adjust¬ 
ment of moral evil as necessary as of physical evil. 

“ Mere matter ” seems to be a phrase disrespectful to 
Deity; since all space is filled with material agents of 
God. It is through matter he is pleased to act; and 
even in the vast spaces apparently void, matter, how¬ 
ever ethereal, so fills and impacts every speck of room in 
creation, that, to find room for spirit, we are compelled to 
suspect more intimate relation with matter than is sup¬ 
posed. As the elements of matter are certainly inde¬ 
structible and immortal, and as matter forms beyond all 
visible proportions so much the greater part of God’s 
creative exercise, there is certainly no irreverence to 
God, and no violence to human reason, to suppose that 
it is from matter which he so sanctifies, that it pleases 
him to create spirit, as it certainly pleases him to sustain 
it, and to make it the only means of demonstrating its 
power. What are riches and great conceptions without 
working hands ? Because the Devil is spirit, he has to 
get into some one’s body to effect any thing. He used 
a serpent’s body, a madman’s tongue, the lips of Judas, 
and the legs of swine^ 

The doctrine of the resurrection of the body is of far- 
off Egyptian conception, as their mummies show. 
Reason led them to see that spirit can effect nothing 
without a body to do its work. They made it a neces¬ 
sity of resurrection. It seems probable that they per¬ 
ceived the body daily and momently making our thoughts 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL 323 


from the material brain, and that when, by accident, 
disease, or death, the brain worked imperfectly, or ceased 
to convert its substance altogether, there was a stoppage 
of the production, partial or entire. And it is probable, 
that, as a generator of spirit, they considered the body 
should be invested with equal immortality. 


MATTER AND SPIRIT. 

“ 'Tis sweet to muse upon the skill displayed, — 

Infinite skill in all that God has made; 

To trace in Nature’s most minute design 
The signature and stamp of power divine.” 

No man can deal intelligently with the mystery of 
evil till he has traced the connection between matter 
and the intelligent spirit. We have said that spirit can 
make no demonstration without material organs. 
Neither can material life proceed without an intelligent 
spirit to guide its growth, its form, and its purpose. 
There is a mutual dependence, and an intimate relation¬ 
ship, if not elemental identity, that makes a line of sep¬ 
aration impossible. And this is so clear, that it would 
seem that they can not live apart; which would estab¬ 
lish identity between moral and physical evil, and bring 
them under one law. 

The brain of man consists of two separate but not 
detached brains, the front and the back. The front 
holds communion with the world without, and soars to 
heaven. The back brain knows nothing of the outer 
world. It has no metaphysics ; it is all physical in its 


324 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


functions, while the front brain is all moral and specula¬ 
tive. The back brain is the housekeeper. It cares for 
the body and its organs. It supplies intelligence through 
a thousand nervous monitors, by which are performed 
all the intricate processes of life, motion, sustenance, 
cleaning and repairing, and the like. It supplies the 
brain-material for the use of the moral department. It 
keeps it clean and in repair. For this latter purpose it 
requires a cessation of work in the moral laboratory, 
which we call sleep. The front brain caters for food 
and fuel, so to say. And the back brain attends the 
engine and the kitchen. The nose and tongue act as 
inspectors for the stomach or kitchen, as a check on the 
judgment and imposition of the provider. 

The department of the interior is entirely beyond the 
control of the front brain. It would never know there 
were such organs as lungs, stomach, liver, bowels, kid¬ 
neys, &c., were it not for anatomical inspection of other 
bodies. It is only when an organ is diseased that any 
feeling is communicated; and then the purpose is for 
warning of danger. 

Thus it is manifest that there is an intelligent spirit 
inherent in matter, and distinct from the soul spirit. 
This latter sleeps ; the former sleeps only in death. The 
natural spirit seldom errs; the moral spirit is mighty 
uncertain. 

These two intelligent spirits come from the same 
source, and their differences are due solely to the differ¬ 
ences in the brain-organs through which they work ; as 
the heart and the pancreas derive their different struc¬ 
tures from the same blood. 

There is a system of rewards and punishments, by 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 325 


which the tycoon of the department of the interior 
keeps in check the impositions of the mikado, or spiritual 
governor: dyspepsia, gout, headache, &c., on the one 
hand; joyous health and bright spirits on the other. 

The back brain never makes a fool of itself: this can 
not be said of the other. 

It is quite clear that there is such intermingling and 
mutual dependence, such twinship, that the two brains 
are essentially of one elemental order of intelligence. 
But one belongs to the soul; the other to the body. 
Each has intelligence ; and the immortality of one as 
an intelligent principle necessitates the immortality of 
the other. The ancient Egyptians must have thought 
so when they established the doctrine of the resurrec¬ 
tion of the body. 

All matter is endowed with self-working intelligence. 
The earth is a mass of intelligence, without which its 
complex movements would have no direction. Like the 
human body, it is forming and reforming, taking down 
and reconstructing. It has its venous circulation in 
its surface waters, and its arterial in its subterranean 
courses. 

Its soil regulates with intelligence the growth of 
plants, and grasses are the hair thereof. Every plant 
has in itself a spirit of intelligence, that directs the pro¬ 
cesses of life. The nettle angers and stings like the 
wasp; the flower clothes itself in beauty, with taste 
more classic than our city belles. Like as we do marry 
and beget, so do the plants. Watch the manner of 
flowers in the pairing-season ; and you will see that it.is 
one thing in plants and animals. 

It has pleased God to endow all vegetable and animal 


326 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


life with intelligent spirit, to which consistency can not 
deny immortality. There is, therefore, in all we eat 
wherewith to sustain the mind as well as the body; and 
if it pleases God, so intimately and inseparably to 
mingle matter and spirit, moral evil would seem to be an 
equal necessity with physical evil, in the government of 
the Creator ; and there is a like necessity of law, that 
moral evil, like physical evil, shall be corrected of its 
aberrations here, while the union is existing. 

This study corroborates our instinctive faith, that 
there is a superior central source from which, like the 
rays of the sun, spiritual intelligence radiates, penetrat¬ 
ing and directing every material thing in the universe, 
investing it with power of transmission and immortality, 
and far beyond popular ideas exalting the character 
and attributes of the Great Almighty. 


HAVE TREES INTELLIGENCE? 

. . . “ Not a tree, 

A plant, a blossom, but contains 
A folio volume. We may read and read, 
y And read again, and still find something new, — 

Something to please, something to instruct.” 

In the sacred philosophy of the seasons, a clergyman 
narrates as follows: “At a parsonage in Berkshire, 
England, there is a chestnut-tree of large dimensions. 
To make an embankment, the surface soil and roots 
were taken off, and the tree rapidly lost its vigor. A 
few leaves came in spring-time, but soon withered. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 327 


After a time, the tree took on new life, and at last re¬ 
covered its full vigor, and bore its full annual crop of 
chestnuts. For a long time the cause of this change 
could not be traced ; but it was found at last, and thus 
it is described : — 

At some distance below the bank, there runs a brook, 
over which a new and broad foot-bridge was placed. 
This was made of logs, which were covered w T ith a 
deep coat of earth, and sodded as usual in that humid 
climate. The tree seemed to reason as thus : “ There 
is rich living on the other side of the brook; see how 
the trees flourish ! If I could only get over there ! 
Behold, men cross: why can not I?” Faith inspired 
endeavor; and the tree fabricated a special root, which 
it directed by the shortest line to the foot-bridge, worked 
its way through the soil of its covering, and reached the 
land of promise. Once tasting the fat of the land, it 
put forth a vast net-work of rootlets, and soon the dying 
chestnut-tree was born again to new^ life and rich in¬ 
heritance. Call it by what name we please, here is 
intelligence, differing in nothing from our own guiding 
instincts. It is no humiliation to man, but it is exalta¬ 
tion to the plant kingdom, and to the wisdom, the 
power, and the glory of Him who is Father to tree as 
well as to the man, fashioning all things with one intelli¬ 
gent life to his equal purpose. 


328 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


SPIRITUALISM. 

“ There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our 
philosophy.” 

It will not do to cry nonsense, and pass as of no ac¬ 
count a movement that has possessed the multitude, and 
is spreading with unexampled rapidity. It is true that 
it has taken on no proportions, no embodiment. 
Nothing has yet come out of it of a practical char¬ 
acter. It gives no new moral light for our guidance. 

It is said that its public lecturers give us aimless gen¬ 
eralities ; that its tests and rappings serve no moral pur¬ 
pose ; that its clairvoyants astonish like fortune-tellers, 
but that is all. Yet we do not despair of seeing some 
practical purpose dawn upon us. It seems to be a 
chaotic power wildly struggling for concentration and 
usefulness. It may soon bring forth a master-spirit, 
that will reveal its real purpose to its millions of childlike 
admirers. 

It may reveal a new religion to take the place of the 
present dying-out theology. We trust it may so far 
surpass all worldly religions, as to be self-convincing, 
without miracles such as all other religions seem to re¬ 
quire to win belief in their perfection. 

May it give us a better bond of union in intelligent 
faith and living devotion ! May it elevate women, and 
make marriage the rule, and not the exception ! 

The term of its infancy should come to an end. If 
it be destined to ripen into maturity, some religious 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 329 


fruitage should begin to appear. Let its votaries awake 
from their dreamy faith, and pray for higher manifes¬ 
tation of the spirit, tending to more useful revelations. 


GOOD AND EVIL COMPOUNDED. 

There are singular compounds of good and evil in 
the same person, which indicate a puzzle in any final 
judgment of retribution. Dr. Rush has in his classifi¬ 
cation “ the lying disease.” It is not fraudulent and 
malicious lying he speaks of, though this may be also a 
disease under similar diagnosis. He speaks of that 
unmeaning, boasting habit of story-telling, of which 
examples are abundant. The patient seems to be in¬ 
capable of speaking truth if the subject affords scope 
for lying. Many of these are newsmongers, whose 
only motive seems to be to please, and get credit for 
being first to know the news. They can not refrain from 
willful exaggeration. The tea-table brings out the 
symptoms. The patient is often amiable and charitable, 
and has no wicked habits, so to say. 

Dr. Rush infers that the lying disease proceeds from 
organic malformation of the brain, because it is well 
known to physicians that certain diseases have the same 
effect on patients who in health are noted for veracity. 
Qucere. — Could any one have a practice of lying if his 
mind were entirely sane ? 

Upham’s Philosophy gives accounts of many persons 
celebrated for wealth, and otherwise of virtuous lives, 


330 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


who could not overcome an unmeaning propensity to 
steal. Victor Amadeus I., King of Sardinia; Saurin, an 
exemplary pastor of Geneva; the wife of Glaubrus, a 
physician of wealth and position; and several titled 
ladies, — are given in illustration. Dr. Rush had a lady 
patient in Philadelphia, of great wealth and high posi¬ 
tion, and who had no extravagance to urge her, who 
yet found, as she assured him, the only pleasure of life 
in stealing. He tried every means such as are used in 
errant forms of insanity; but, while lamenting her habit, 
she confessed that Nature was too strong to be subdued. 

A government official in Vienna is mentioned, whose 
stealing propensity was confined to cooking-utensils. 
He had, when discovered, two rooms full, and never 
used what he stole. These specialties are common, and 
must be referred to disease or malformation. Robes¬ 
pierre, the blood-thirsty miscreant, suffered from painful 
obstructions of the bowels. On dissection, “ his bowels 
were found to be one adherent mass.” It is said, that, 
when a barrister, Robespierre refused a judgeship be¬ 
cause he could not conscientiously pass sentence of 
death. 

Marat, his bloody compeer, was a victim to some dis¬ 
ease that made him spend much of his time in a warm 
bath, in which Charlotte Corday found him when she 
killed him. It is, says Dr. Rush, an interesting ques¬ 
tion, moral and physiological, how far these morbid 
ailments influenced the brain of these monsters, and led 
to their bloody career. Don Vincenti de Beutavel-y- 
Sazar lived in Ugigar, Grenada. His charity was so 
unbounded, that he gave to the poor till he was himself 
brought to destitution. Pie took to highway robbery 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 331 


and murder, by which he obtained gold to give to the 
poor. In his confession, he says his first murder 
occurred thus: Two young persons were about to 
marry, when the parents broke off the match because 
the stipulated dowry could not be raised. Yincenti’s 
heart bled for them. He knew a priest who was 
going out of town with fifty ounces of gold. He fol¬ 
lowed him, and asked the loan of it. Knowing him 
well, he cheerfully offered the loan ; but, on learning the 
intended use of it, he refused. Yincenti shot him dead, 
and took the money. His high character sheltered him 
long from suspicion ; and he committed many murders 
before final detection. When condemned to death, he 
expressed but one concern, — “O God ! who will now 
take care of my poor ? ” 

This is an extreme case; but it is a type of a large 
class of monomaniac passions that govern the soul with 
power beyond control. It shows that charity, the high¬ 
est of all virtues, may become morbid and vicious by 
excessive indulgence ; as though, in certain parts of their 
extreme circuits, they had a near assimilation in their 
component elements. If a good end justifies unlawful 
means, Yincenti may be justified at the final judgment 
of souls; otherwise, like Solomon’s adjudication to cut 
the disputed child in twain, Yincenti’s soul would have 
to be divided. One half would bear the heinous sins 
that can not enter heaven, and the other half would 
bear the Godlike virtues which can not go to hell. If 
ever there was such a thing as a twin soul capable of 
such a division, this is an instance. Otherwise it pre¬ 
sents a difficulty apparently insurmountable in practical¬ 
ly administering the theoretic law of separating good 
from evil at the judgment. 


332 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


SUPERSTITION. 

“ He mistakes who tries 
To search all mysteries; 

Who leaves no cup undrained, or path untouched. 

Who seeks to know too much 
Brushes with ruthless touch 
. The bloom of fancy from the brier of fact. 

Keep some fair myths aloof 
From hard and actual proof, 

And let dear Fancy roam there as she will. 

Whatever page we turn, 

However much we learn, 

Let there be something left to dream of still.” 

Emerson. 

Superstition is belief not founded on reason. Reli¬ 
gion is our moral atmosphere. Like the physical at¬ 
mosphere, it is composed of two elements ; the lesser 
being the life-giving, and the larger its diffusing element. 
The truths which form the life-giving, moral element of 
all religions require the superstitious element to give 
them practical diffusion. Religion so compounded is a 
great social bond among men. Without superstition, it 
would be simply moral philosophy, bricks without 
mortar. 

Let no man rail at superstition as airy nothing. 
There are mysteries in life which are beyond compre¬ 
hension ; and it is well for us if we can quiet our minds 
by some satisfying theory that will withdraw embarrass¬ 
ing questions from fruitless strains of human thought. 
The dogmas of religion are the superstition thereof. By 
quarreling over them, and giving them variation from 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 333 


time to time, we keep religion alive. And it is not im¬ 
possible, that, in current superstitions, there are germs of 
truth which make the nearest approach we are capable 
of understanding, to truths that are inexplicable, because 
beyond the limited powers of our minds to comprehend; 
such as the nature of Deity, the beginning and the 
end of space and eternity, what is man made for, 
whither he goes, and what is his place and order here¬ 
after. 

When children ask how they came to us, we say we 
found them in the bushes. This has a good effect, because 
it stops inconvenient inquiry, satisfies the child’s mind, 
and leaves it free for more profitable uses. If the 
mind in childhood is thus incapable, is there any diffi¬ 
culty in conceiving, that, in the trifling after-expansion 
of the same reasoning organ, there is not capacity to 
comprehend the immeasurably greater mysteries of the 
Infinite ? 

From the very nature and purpose of superstition, if 
it is to serve its design, it must be capable of such 
changes as satisfy the increased enlightenment of the age. 
As the child expands into manhood, the same supersti¬ 
tion no longer satisfies. 

Hitherto, women have been easily satisfied with every 
superstition, because their education was ’ less general 
and profound; and men have been led by deference to 
pretend belief. But now it is the principle of the pub¬ 
lic-school system to give equal education to both sexes. 
Women are taught to pry into all pretensions ; and we 
must look out when they begin to investigate. Their 
quicker wit, and their clearer brain, unclouded by stu¬ 
pefying tobacco, by strong drink, and other vices, will 


334 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


no longer be satisfied with metaphysics that sufficed for 
women before their eyes were opened so widely. 

Here lies the danger of the Church, in holding on to 
superstitions that will be no longer tenable, and in ne¬ 
glecting to inaugurate such gradations of change as may 
save it from the fatal consequences of general unbelief. 
The pulpit freely confesses its knowledge of the increas¬ 
ing growth of infidelity. What our metaphysics are is 
not consequential, provided they obtain faith. What¬ 
ever superstitions may best dramatize the fundamental 
truths of religion, and sustain interest in them, should 
harmonize with popular sentiment. And, to secure the 
widest belief, the surest way is to impose as little as pos¬ 
sible on credulity. 


A SURE REMEDY FOR IRRELIGION. 

When it is said, that, were it not for religion, men 
would be still worse than they are, a truth is uttered to 
which there can be no dissent. There is another truth 
which should always accompany it: were religion better 
administered, men would be much better than they 
are. 

What we respectfully and reverentially present to the 
consideration of religious instructors is this, viz., Is our 
religion so administered as to do any thing like the 
good it might do by improved methods? Let us 
see. 

The Mohammedan, the Hindoo, and the Persian re¬ 
ligions, as administered, do contrive to beat us in sup- 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 835 


pressing eating and drinking to intemperance, in which 
ours is sadly defective. The worshipers of the prophet, 
of Buddha, of Confucius, of Zoroaster, are more prayerful 
and more devotional, day by day, than Christians. They 
live out their religion better than we. Profanity is 
almost unknown. In filial reverence, and kind treat¬ 
ment of animals, they surpass us. What shall we say 
of common honesty in the walks of trade ? of resig¬ 
nation to suffering and ill-fortune ? of money-worship ? 
of picking pockets and pilfering ? 

Hon. Anson Burlingame, who well knows the people 
of China, says in his address to the American Congress, 
“ If you examine the structure of Chinese civilization, 
you will better appreciate their manners, their industry, 
their patience, habits of scholarship, and competitive 
examinations. Our assumption of superiority over the 
* Chinese in moral elevation has no justification.” He 
intimates, that, to win them to Christianity, we must 
prepare to present its claims to the highest critical in¬ 
vestigation of competent scholarship. 

A reverend gentleman was shocked, on landing at 
Constantinople, by a remark he least expected. It was 
towards evening, and men had quit work. His baggage 
was strewed on the wharf. He was told to go to his 
hotel, and his baggage would be taken in the morning. 
He expressed such fear, that the Turk assured him there 
would be no rain. “ It is thieves I fear,” said the cler¬ 
gyman. “ Oh ! ” said the astonished Mussulman, “you 
need not fear : there are no Christians in this quarter.” 

How do these heathen religions gain such a marked 
success in these important specialties ? That is a ques¬ 
tion we may study to our profit. 


336 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


Torpor in temperament, and climatic lassitude, may 
partly but not wholly explain the difference. If rest¬ 
lessness and discontent have come to us from our habits, 
and if the many evils we speak of owe their excess to 
whatever, extenuating causes, it only proves that we need 
more powerful religious effort than is prevalent. We 
want new direction to our preaching. Shall we confess 
that our religion is incompetent to do what Mohammed, 
Confucius, and Buddha do in repression of our great 
evils of intemperance in meat, in drink, in money- 
absorption, in irreligion, and other consuming sins ? Or 
shall we rather confess it is not the religion of Christ 
that is in fault, but the dogmatic perversions that weaken 
it by unbelief, and waste the talent of our clergy in 
studying to defend what no longer interests us ? 

The great majority of our preachers are drones in the 
Christian hive, who complain of empty pews and ab- * 
sentees, as if their own want of attraction were not in 
fault. 

The remedy for all this is found at once when a pop¬ 
ular preacher fills the pulpit. The trouble is, then, to 
find room for the crowd. Is it not so ? “ Popular ” 

simply means, “competent; ” for, if a preacher fail to in¬ 
terest, he is not competent to draw men to Christianity. 

In this age, it is vain to hope to revive our religion, unless 
we change the system of begetting apostles by theolo¬ 
gical machinery, to getting such as are called of God by 
extempore eloquence, or, so to say, by divine inspiration. 
Let it not be said that the congregation only can effect 
this reform. If we love Christianity, let us all unite, 
and make timely efforts for our common safety. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 337 


THE DANGER OF BELIEVING TOO MUCH. 

We hear often of the perils of not believing enough ; 
but the great danger comes of believing too much. 
Jesus was a plain-spoken man. He had no theologic 
subtlety. What he plainly taught is enough, what he 
did not plainly teach is too much. It chokes the ave¬ 
nues of faith. “ If ye love me, keep my command¬ 
ments,” means, also, u permit no Pharisaic additions to 
divide your reverence.” 

The dogmas which so greatly occupy attention and 
foster persecution and infidelity are exactly such addi¬ 
tions. They are distractions from devotion to the plain 
teachings of Christ, and therefore there is danger of 
believing them overmuch. 

We may waste precious time in preparing for a 
heaven that theology paints after the fashion of earth, 
to find, too late, that we have taken there treasure 
valued on earth, but not in heaven. 

A speculator living in Minnesota, where every pig¬ 
pen requires a lightning-rod to protect it from the terri¬ 
ble lightning of that climate, bought, at high figures, the 
patent right of a superior lightning-rod for California. 
He made up a large stock; and with flaming handbills 
of houses and barns on fire, and with high praises of his 
conductor as a blessing to California, he arrived at San 
Francisco, and heralded his advent by costly publication 
in every form. His fortune was as sure as if it was in 
hand. People did not call. It was their stupidity. 

22 


333 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


lie observed people before liis posters, laughing irrever¬ 
ently. God would punish them. Wait till it thunders! 
By and by he found that thunder and lightning are not 
among the institutions of the self-purifying atmosphere 
of California, that barns are seldom used, and that 
lightning-rods are unknown and unwanted. 

So men who spend their lives in preparing for the 
next world, calculating that what serves here must be 
useful everywhere, will be likely to find their stores of 
preparation have gone to a realm where they are not 
appreciated. 

We may find our wrangling creeds, our dogmas, and 
our many prayers, and the whole bundle of our theolo¬ 
gies, rejected by the janitors of heaven, as entitling us 
to no passport of admission. 

What if the Son of man shall ask you to show him 
three personal Gods, either in heaven, or in the gospel 
of his word ? What if, confronted with the host of poor 
toilers, Jesus shall require you to point out any com¬ 
mandment for burdening his new religion with the old 
Jewish sabbath, and for robbing your brother of the in¬ 
nocent recreation he so much needs to soften the hard¬ 
ness of his lot ? 

What if he should ask you to show any thing in the 
Gospels, pretending they are inspired words of God, to 
justify your persecution of your brother who can not 
find it there ? How many Christians are prepared to 
answer straightforward these and similar questions upon 
which may hinge their condemnation ? 

Ye who consider eternal pleasure as the reward of 
trifling merit consider that 

“ If all the year were playing holidays, 

To sport would be as tedious as to work.” 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 339 

Consider how, in this life, happiness depends on useful 
occupation, and that this wholesome law may require 
that there, as here, every man’s, lot is to work on for 
ever in the service of the Almighty. If it may be 
doubted that intolerant dogmas will avail in heaven, let 
us judge no man for unbelief in them, but give our¬ 
selves more to charity, tolerance, and forgiveness, 
which will certainly avail us at the throne of grace. 
We can not know the fashion of life hereafter. 

“ Search not to find what lies too deeply hid, 

Nor to know things where knowledge is forbid.” 

But 

“ Seek virtue, and, of that possessed, 

To Providence resign the rest.” 


ARE THE MIRACLES RECORDED SUPERIOR TO 
NATURAL MEANS FOR THE SPREAD OF THE 
GOSPEL? 

No clearer enunciation is recorded from the lips of 
our Saviour than that he would do no miracles. The 
miraculous bread they asked him to give as Moses did, 
he refused, with explanations putting at rest all such de¬ 
mands ; viz., that Moses did no such miracle, and, for 
himself, it was spiritual bread only he had to give ; and 
that the only miraculous sign he would give to this gen¬ 
eration would be the sign of the prophet Jonah (Mat¬ 
thew, Luke, and John). 

Against these clear words we should have equally 
clear renunciation to warrant us to believe what is con- 


340 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


tradictory of them. To make it consistent, either the 
miracles must be classed as traditionary amplifications, 
or the words attributed must be discredited. We pre¬ 
fer the former. The alleged miracles are what others 
report; while their contradiction is what our Saviour 
himself pronounced against them as not belonging to 
his mission. If people of this age no longer believe the 
miracles, they will believe more in our Saviour and his 
religion if we can relieve them of what is fatal to belief 
altogether. We have, as above, strong grounds from 
Scripture to sustain popular unbelief in miracles. 

If it be admitted that our religion required miraculous 
aid, like all religions that preceded it, in order to satisfy 
the world that ours was better, our miracles should be 
superior to theirs. If our religion be divine, and theirs 
human, and miracles be the test, our miracles should be 
of the kind to comport with the great superiority of 
divine over human origin. It will not do to say ours 
were genuine, theirs fictitious. Each found belief; and 
belief is the test of efficiency. In any case, it is possible 
that ignorance may have been satisfied with what only 
seemed miraculous: and it is dangerous to charge all 
other religious histories with fabrication ; for they can 
return the reproach in testimony of the disputable value 
of that sort of proof generally. How much higher 
claim would be innate proof of superiority needing no 
miracles ! 

We are left to wonder why, if, spreading quickly and 
convincingly, the proof by miracles were the design, 
the head men, the devout and learned, were not invited 
to a public proof with miracles that would have at once 
converted all Judaea. For instance, if our moon had 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL, 341 


been converted into a ring like Saturn’s, which could 
only have been the Creator’s work, every man would 
have at once been convinced by such a miracle; and it 
would have had the elements of endurance instead of 
evanescence, as ought to have been expected, to clearly 
distinguish it from terrestrial doings, that, as our Saviour 
warns us, can be simulated. This would have been 
to every man, in all time, a personal miracle, instead of 
requiring a miracle of faith in the judgment of far-off 
people, unknown to us by name or by character for 
being above self-deception. Such a miracle may be 
said to be too much at variance with natural laws; but 
this is equally against all miracles. A new star moving 
out of order was the first guide given to the infant’s 
place of birth, as if inaugurating a style of miracle 
which should be far above the kind claimed by other 
multitudinous religions. It was a beginning so obviously 
calculated to effect the object, that it is not unreasona¬ 
ble to ask why the common style of narrow, terrestrial, 
religious miracles was fallen back upon. 

Suppose this be unreasonably hard ; if our Saviour 
had given the art of printing as a divine gift, how would 
it have spread the gospel ! How infinitely more power¬ 
ful would have been a penny newspaper for every pur¬ 
pose of spreading the glad tidings! It would have 
passed as the greatest miracle. Every one from the 
highest to the lowest, in that age, would have accepted 
it as a miraculous revelation from heaven. From the 
very restricted effects of the miracles recorded, com¬ 
pared with such aid as a penny newspaper devoted to 
the new doctrine would have given to belief and spread 
of the gospel, it is fair to say that natural means would 


342 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


have been infinitely more competent than sucli miracles 
as those that are claimed. And, where natural means 
would be so much preferable, it is doing great violence 
to faith, and injustice to God and the character of 
Jesus, to believe he would have taken the worst means 
to the waste and discredit of miraculous intervention, 
instead of the better means offered by God’s existing 
laws ; especially when the miraculous, by taking the 
place of the natural, retarded, instead of advancing, the 
rapid progress of his religion. It seems to be irrecon¬ 
cilable with all rationality. Had he even given a brush 
of miracle to brighten up the wits of the inefficient dis¬ 
ciples, of whose dull apprehension he was ever com¬ 
plaining, it would have done more for his cause than 
all the alleged miracles. The selection of disciples is a 
very curious illustration, if the narrative be correct, 
that miraculous power of judgment was not displayed. 
He may have saved sinners; but Paul is entitled to the 
credit of having saved his religion from the oblivion 
which seemed likely to result from the incompetency of 
his ignorant disciples. To amend the inefficiency of 
his first selection, and as confession of it, a new miracle 
is claimed, that placed Paul at the head of our religion, 
instead of Peter; and it is in proof that Paul is our 
chief reliance to this day. It is clear that natural 
talents far above the disciples did the work, and the 
Paul miracle was supernumerary. 

Finally, to further corroborate our views, Jesus has 
left us his clearest denunciation against miracles in gen- 
eral. By whomsoever claimed, and however convin¬ 
cing they may be to our senses, he warns us against 
placing any reliance upon them, because they are the 
easily-performed tricks of impostors, by which even 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 343 


God’s own elect may be deceived (Matt. xxiv. 24; 
Mark xiii. 22). 

Acts viii. 9, 10, tells us that the miracles of a 
heathen magician, Simon of Samaria, were so convin¬ 
cing that he drew crowds of men, great and small. And 
they all exclaimed, 44 This man is the great power of 
God ! ” a higher attestation than was accorded to the 
miracles of Christ or his apostles. 

These evidences go to show that Jesus was not a man 
of miracles ; that he placed his religion above them ; 
that, as the early Christian fathers inform us, the slow 
progress of Christianity was attributed to the want of 
miracles ; and that, on this account, it was deemed justi¬ 
fiable to invent whatever might tend to advance the 
good cause and promote conversions. 

By whatever rule of evidence we may be guided, it 
can not be held that the testimony of the miracles is so 
conclusive as to be absolutely of indispensable belief. 
And no good Christian can be excused before his own 
conscience for intolerance of his brother who subscribes 
to the great truths of Christianity, letting no man judge 
him regarding miracles and other evidences which per¬ 
plex his reason, without heightening his admiration, or 
increasing his faith in Christ and his doctrines. 


PRESENT INDUCEMENTS TO VIRTUE. 

It is worthy of note that our doctrine of far-off pun¬ 
ishment, intended to suppress crime, is precisely what 
it does not do. Of all people, our criminal population 
are least affected by it. Fear of hereafter is the last 
thought that ever occurs to such people. The doctrine 


344 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


is held, as well as many others, even among better peo¬ 
ple, as something to say “ we believe.” But it is 
doubtful if any one inclined to cheat or to slander his 
neighbor is ever checked in one instance out of a score 
by any such terror. What restrains men from evil is 
fear of discovery and retribution here. Even then, give 
them four months’ stay of execution, and the hope of 
evasion overcomes the fear. 

We believe enough in spontaneous goodness to hope 
that a very small part of the higher quality of charity 
and virtue is due to hope of hereafter reward, or of 
any material reward outside of innate pleasure. 

He who is good from love of goodness is far better 
rewarded, though he is not asking it. The man who 
refrains from evil only through fear of punishment is a 
worse man at heart than he who has courage to do, and 
brave the danger. Look never to the former for gen¬ 
erosity, but from the latter. “ There is honor among 
thieves,” and much liberality. 

It would be a higher order of teaching to persuade 
men to believe what is true as gospel; viz., that to be 
good and honest pays better than vice and dishonesty 
and intemperance. If the same eloquence and organ¬ 
ized effort we use to preach doctrine to small purpose 
were directed to devising plans for the betterment of 
men in this way, we believe it would be a great aid to 
Christianity at home, and, by example, to its acceptance 
abroad. 

In Paris, this plan has been tried with success so perfect 
as to prove its availability on an extended if not a gen¬ 
eral scale, We present it for Christian consideration. 

Of all sins, petty dishonesty in trade, and, probably, 
more particularly among poorly-paid workers, will be 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 345 


conceded as the most difficult of repression. The 
French have converted their cab and omnibus men by 
the following plan : — 

These people are formed into a legion of honor. 
Every year there is a public judgment, at which the 
records are read announcing what each man has depos¬ 
ited at the Bureau of Articles found in their Coaches, of 
gold pieces received in the night for silver, and so forth. 
The increasing value of such returns shows, year by 
year, the continued success of the device. The variety 
of articles passes conception, and so does the value. 
What has been restored to owners is stated, and what 
has not been reclaimed. At stated periods, the un¬ 
claimed are sold. This makes a very large fund for 
distribution in the order of merit among the employes. 
The standing is determined by the number and value 
of articles returned by each; and every man gets a cer¬ 
tificate and a token. When a gentleman wants a 
coachman, this certificate, if of high order, at once in¬ 
sures him the place. In all affairs, it serves him when¬ 
ever presented. It is his pride and his glory. The 
emulation to win a high record is a wonderful incentive ; 
and soon honesty becomes a confirmed habit. Fear, 
that is so debasing, is removed; and in its stead there is 
planted a conviction that honesty is the best policy. 

It is conceded by our doctrine that men must be 
paid for being virtuous, and punished for being vicious. 
But should we not effect more by offering men as great 
a proportion as possible of temporal equivalents which 
they can see and realize soon ? Our Saviour sets us 
the example. Peter, on behalf of the disciples, speak¬ 
ing of the sacrifices they were making in following him, 
plainly asks what profit they were to make by following 


346 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


him, — “ What shall we have therefor?” (Matt. xix. 
27 ; Mark and Luke also.) He promises them a hun¬ 
dred-fold (as Mark says) or manifold (as Luke has it) 
returns in this world as the leading inducement, be¬ 
sides immortal life hereafter. It was by the hope of 
temporal profit alone he held them, as the sequel of 
their desertion proved when the temporal promises 
were not forthcoming. What they were plainly prom¬ 
ised was, that Jesus, according to prophecy, would suc¬ 
ceed in freeing the Jews from Roman subjection, and 
then, being himself monarch of the new kingdom, 
he promised to give them the office of judges. The 
Gospels show that he meant this literally, and wished 
them so to understand it; that he failed in the honest 
endeavor to fulfill the promise ; and that, when arrested, 
they lost faith, saw no prospect of profit in further ad¬ 
herence, and therefore they deserted him, and made no 
effort to save him from the fate that befell him. 

From this we deduce the lesson that we should fol¬ 
low his example in winning men to virtue and resigna¬ 
tion under privations, by showing that they will get 
most amply rewarded here besides what may come 
hereafter. 

After many abortive efforts to frighten intemperance 
away by after-life damnation, the other plan was tried, 
and it was the only one that had any success ; viz., by 
convincing the inebriate that temperance pays better 
than intemperance. Why will not this plan apply to 
other aberrations ? All vice comes from a morbid con¬ 
ception that it gives the most happiness; and as this is 
a mistake capable of demonstration by parable, that 
most beautiful of all methods employed by our Saviour, 
it seems to hold out great hopes of being successful. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OE GOOD AND EVIL. 347 


Dr. Combe, one of our soundest moralists, and a de¬ 
vout philosopher says, “ The idea of future retribution 
comes from imagining that vice and virtue do not seem, 
on superficial view, to be fairly retributed here. Hence, 
to justify God, it is thought necessary to suppose there 
must be some way that God will make it right hereafter.” 
But, says Dr. Combe, “ if, from all we can perceive here 
of God’s ways, he is not just, how can we know he ever 
will be ? How can we assume that his government is 
to go upon principles entirely different at one time and 
place from other times and places ? ” [Since God’s law 
of six thousand years’ observation must be invariable 
and permanent, and time is with him one eternity.] 

Dr. Chalmers, whose opinion we all regard, disap¬ 
proves this “ fetching from afar proofs of God’s right¬ 
eousness.” He says he agrees with that school of mor¬ 
alists, which teaches that there is a native and essential 
happiness in moral worth, and a like native and essential 
wretchedness in moral depravity ; insomuch that one 
may be regarded as its own reward, and the other as its 
own punishment. 

These embarrassments to devout reasoners will be 
removed if we succeed in our efforts to show that God 
is just here and everywhere, now and always ; that by 
search we may find improved means to promote good, 
and to repress evil; that each brings its own balance 
here; and that, the more immediate the connection 
between the deed and its reward, the more effective is 
the preservation of the happiest equilibrium between the 
contending forces of good and evil, to which all moral 
life owes its activity. 


348 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


OBSTACLES TO CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA. 

From a book on the Chinese, published in New York, 
in 1867, by Rev. Justus Doolittle, who spent half his 
life in missionary labors in China, we gather some useful 
suggestions on the obstacles to conversions, which apply 
to India, and other religious nations which we call 
heathen : — 

1st, It is impossible to get them to believe the Mosaic 
story of the origin of evil, and our dogma of the innate 
depravity of man. 

2d, The Mosaic cosmogony. They believe the ele¬ 
ments of matter eternal. To make something out of 
nothing is incredible; or that all space was ever an 
empty void. They believe in the innate purity of Phe 
soul as it comes from the Creator, and as its infancy 
proves. Evil is a stain that comes from worldly contact, 
and it can not inherit immortality. It must pass 
away. 

3d, The Godhead of Jesus he does not allude to; 
but the Holy Ghost can not be made intelligible to 
them. 

4th, The Christian doctrine of atonement, by which 
one innocent man’s life is accepted for compensation for 
the wicked acts of millions of bad men, can never be 
fixed in their belief by any efforts of logic. 

5th, The resurrection of the present body is ridiculed, 
and opposed by criticism hard to refute. They desire 
better bodies ; and they insist on the absurdity of our 
organs being adapted to life in the spirit-land, especially 
the repulsive excrctories and others less mentionable. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 349 


6th, Our eternal hell, where transitory evils are trans¬ 
ferred to a special part of God’s domain, to be invested 
with immortal existence, offends their reverence for the 
Creator; still more so the unspeakable injustice of 
punishment so out of all proportion to the petty vices 
of human life. It is not possible to get this believed in 
China; and thev hold our whole religion sacrilegious on 
its account. 

They believe that virtue and vice are in great part re- 
tributed here. 

They have a doctrine that works practical effect, 
which is not without example among us. It is called the 
doctrine of “ meritorious deeds ” as atonement for evil 
deeds. Every one seems to be doing something, such 
as mending defective highways, making public wells, 
lighting dark places, supplying free tea to travelers, and 
free coffins to deceased poor, and a hundred similar acts. 
By this means, most of their sins are wiped away. Of 
the balance remaining, some go to their children to, be 
requited, as is proved in life. Comparatively few sins 
are left: these are of a heinous character, requiring to 
be purged away by treatment elsewhere. 

Hell. — They wisely establish ten hells, on account 
of the various degrees of vice. Hence punishment is 
mercifully dealt in kind and duration, necessary to 
washing out the sinful soil, and making the soul clean 
as it was. Some sins require the soul to be sent back at 
once into life as men or animals. Some authors say a 
bad husband becomes a woman, and gets a bad husband 
to torment the soul till its sin is compensated. Mr. 
Doolittle thinks these punishments trivial and nonsen¬ 
sical, as well as wanting iiTfrightfulness. 

Heaven. — Souls made clean in hell are sent to 


350 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


heaven for new usefulness. Their new life is a renewal 
of trials, and chances for promotion in various forms. 
But, at some far distant period, the circuit of life brings 
them back to earth. And thus the soul, by constant 
renovation of form and useful activity, recovers the 
necessary waste of wear, and insures its immortality. 
We can not join the author in pronouncing these doc¬ 
trines absurd superstitions. Belief in them is universal; 
while ours lose their efficiency by a general want of 
hearty belief. 

The reverend author says Confucius has been, for 
lone: centuries before Jesus, the sole moral light of this 
four hundred millions of God’s children. Mencius and 
Buddha have contributed much ; but Confucius is the 
great master spirit, and the light of his moral guidance 
knows no diminution of its luster to this day. His doc¬ 
trines are beyond the reach of infidelity among the 
people they were for. Every man is a hearty believer. 
What a lesson for us ! 

He says that our dogmas seem to this four hundred 
millions of Confucian souls so unreasonable, so against 
natural laws, so paradoxical, — and the Chinese mind is 
so educated to close reasoning, — that it will require the 
most acute and best-educated talents of Christendom to 
get them to accept the dogmas of Christianity in exchange 
for those of Confucius, Mencius, and Buddha. He says 
that no missionary is fit for the work who has not a 
knowledge of the religion they already have, and candor 
to confess its merits. It is offensive to them to claim 
as doctrines of Jesus what was taught by their own 
religion long before his time. What we have to do is 
to dwell upon what we have that is new, and to persuade 
them it is better, if we can. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 351 


Now, many of our dogmas, chiefly those of inference, 
which Jesus did not teach, nor hint at in plain words, 
must for ever bar the spread of the gospel to these people. 
And one that is explicitly pronounced in our versions 
will have to be expunged before our religion can possi¬ 
bly be received in China, where filial affection and rev¬ 
erence are the great predominating characteristics of all 
classes. It is the command, that, to be a Christian, we 
must abandon and disown father, mother, sister, and 
brother. As we ourselves practically annul this, and as 
no cunning evasion will suffice to explain it away, may 
we not find ways to remove the obstacle to conversion ? 

There are fifty thousand laboring-class and'bachelor 
Chinamen in California, among whom there are no 
women, and no homes, to temper disposition, and wean 
from vicious tendencies. Remembering this, let us 
ponder over that first-class authority, “ The Sacramento 
Union ” of May 22, 1868, which says, — 

“ It is proved by State statistics of crime that these 
lowest class of the children of Confucius are more hon¬ 
est, and less violators of law, than the mass of our 
Christians.” The editors give their own experience ; 
viz., “ That no fifty thousand average Christians can 
be picked promiscuously here who will equal these 
poorest and lowest classes of Chinese heathen, as we 
call them, in industry, frugality, law-respecting, docility, 
good-nature, and honesty.” 

Are such a people (four hundred millions) worth 
converting!: to Christianitv ? Did our Saviour include 
them in his order? Having interpreted certain doc¬ 
trines to suit peculiar minds along its course westward, 
may we not essay to present the gospel in its own sim¬ 
ple and plain words on its return back toward the 


352 THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

place whence it came in the. beginning; especially 
when it may serve the double purpose of supplying our¬ 
selves as well as them with hearty faith and earnest 
acceptance ? 

Japan is heathen; but in Jeddo, with its millions of 
people, not a beggar is to be seen in the streets. Every 
man reads. Not a drunkard, not a ruffian, not even a 
boor, is to be met anywhere. 


MORAL SEWAGE. 

Every thing in Nature works upon a basis of law that 
is common to all organic life. The human body shows 
that evil is a necessary product of its living processes; 
and, to prove that it is of God’s ordaining, he has, in the 
womb, prepared organs of excretion to carry off the 
evil to be generated. The nose, the liver, the kidneys, 
the rectum, and many other organs, the pores of the 
skin also, prove, that, when Providence creates, it makes 
its creations self-cleansing. The body proves, also, 
what would be the consequence of suppressing the gen¬ 
erating evil. It would be death. For similar reasons, 
it would be moral stagnation and death were the cur¬ 
rent of moral evil suppressed; as in catarrh and 
eruptive diseases, what the doctor aims at is free and 
safe conduction, not suppression, of the morbid produc¬ 
tion, till the normal balance be restored. 

Every thing, however pure, which God gives us for 
the sustenance of life, is composed of the good we want, 
and of the bad which we cast away. The very process 
which is necessary to extract the vital good turns into 
repulsive evil the remainder. Yet this remainder was 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 353 


pure as the other, and a necessity to the first growth of 
the good. Nay, more; this rejected refuse has every 
element for the renewed growth of the plants it cam^ 
from, and of the animals it fatted. It is virtue in dis¬ 
guise of vice, as all farmers know. Its offensiveness 
obliges us to get it out of the way; and the wise use of 
it as a promoter of new good gives us our reward. It 
is exactly the same with moral evils. All moral evil is 
moral sewage, and evil doers are the excretory ducts 
that poison the moral atmosphere. When it comes to 
be understood, that, like manure on the field, evil is full 
of fertilizing elements to the moral earth, we shall learn 
so to treat it, and shall find that “ there’s a soul of good¬ 
ness in things evil, would men observingly distill it out.” 

If the instincts of man, guided by Providence, teach 
us that all waste, abominable as it may appear, is com¬ 
posed of estray elements of good, and is convertible into 
pure creation, can we imagine that this is not a law 
which governs throughout the realms of God ? 

Nothing is more Godlike than the cleansing of what 
is offensive, and its restoration to purity; that nothing 
remain waste, but that every thing be turned to everlast¬ 
ing production of good. Be sure the sewage of the soul 
is not cast away. But, however offensive the mass of 
sin, God knows how to convert it to new uses, and, 
knowing, practices it in this instance, as we find he 
does in every other department of his government, 
which proclaims it the common law of his creation. 

If the sinful soul be put in eternal torment, it results 
in no good to any one; it cleanses nothing; it restores 
nothing to man nor to God ; it is rendering something 
made by God for ever useless, accursed, and beyond the 
23 


354 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


power of restoration, even by God himself: whereas, 
if the doctrine be true that punishment is a cleanser, a 
purifier, and a restorer, nobody is injured, and every 
interest in creation, including the Creator’s, is benefit¬ 
ed. Every fragment is gathered, that nothing be lost. 
Every thing works to the promotion of forgiveness, 
reconciliation, purification, and restoration to usefulness. 
The prodigal son that was lost is restored, and “ there is 
rejoicing in heaven more than over ninety and nine just 
men that need no repentance.” We pray you to weigh 
these opposing theories, and say which is more Godlike, 
which most comports with the paternal relationship 
Christ taught, with the wisdom and the benevolence of 
the Most High. 

“ All is well that* ends well.” 


RELIGION FOR CHILDREN. 

" I have many things to say; but ye are not ready to receive them.” 

While there is a vital gain in presenting the Bible to 
children, there is also loss. Reading the Bible is neither 
intelligible nor agreeable to children. The distaste 
early planted is hard to eradicate ; so that, through after¬ 
life, very few read the Bible to get intelligent conception 
of what they were in childhood but unintelligent be¬ 
lievers. They remain through life mere blind believers, 
unable to give reasons for their own edification, or for 
confirming the faith of others. The fruit of this is in¬ 
difference and infidelity, two growing evils. 

Neither our Saviour nor his apostles left us the sanc¬ 
tion of example for our system. It is from other 
religions we derive it. They evidently desired to pre- 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 355 


sent our religion to mature reason only, believing it the 
only religion that would bear the test. 

There are reasons for our departure from the Scriptu¬ 
ral example. But as the Bible was not written in 
adaptation to the intellect of childhood, and as child¬ 
hood is but a period of preparation for maturing intel¬ 
lect, it seems as if a preparatory compendium should be 
made adapted to the comprehension of the young mind, 
and especially designed to excite interest in the great 
truths by the Saviour’s method of parable illustration. 
The Saviour withheld many things, so did Paul, even 
from mature intellects, till the first principles should be 
firmly ingrafted. This seems especially to apply to the 
young mind, and to the dogmas which can only be 
elaborated from Scripture by logical subtleties, for the 
reception of which childhood is not prepared. Sectari¬ 
ans will object, because one-sided doctrine might suffer; 
but honest Christianity would gain by leaving questions 
that now make dissension to the unprejudiced consid¬ 
eration of mature reason. There seems to be sacrilege 
in compelling the mind, before it has reason, to for ever 
abandon Jesus and his teachings by committing it to 
sectarian departures from the word as it came from the 
Saviour, and by fostering bigoted intolerance that shuts 
out charity, and begets evils innumerable. John S. C. 
Abbott has shown us how history may be made popular 
and comprehensible to youth by abbreviating in a way 
to retain all that is essential to give intelligent concep¬ 
tions to the young mind, of the great principles, and to 
omit what would be barren of interest and intelligible 
instruction. One condensed history could be made from 
the four records, omitting what would be unintelligible 
to children, and perhaps otherwise objectionable at that 


356 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


age. The good effects of this unification of gospel his¬ 
tory would probably lead to similarly successful efforts 
for the benefit of Christian readers of all ages. 

The fragmentary character of our Gospels ; their vary¬ 
ing words given as quotations ; their unequal support of 
reported miracles and of important lessons, such as the 
Sermon on the Mount, which is ignored by three of the 
evangelists, — render it desirable that the whole be set in 
order, and simplified for readier reference and memory. 
The three synoptic Gospels at least are susceptible of 
unification. The Gospel of John has so little accord 
with the others, that either it would be prudent to dis¬ 
pense with it, or it might stand as apocryphal (at least 
as of less authority, being one against three) in the 
weight of testimony. 


TO RECLAIM THE ERRING. 

“ Think gently of the erring ! 

Oh! do not thou forget, 

However darkly stained by sin. 

He is thy brother yet, 

Child of the selfsame God. 

“ Speak gently to the erring ! 

With holy words and tones of love 
Thou yet mayst lead them back. 

Deal gently with the erring one, 

As God has dealt with thee.” 

“ The Gospel of Good and Evil ” teacbes us to be 
tolerant of error, to value more, and to practice, out 
Saviour’s clemency, “ Neither do I condemn thee ; go, 
and sin no more.” 

We all come from God, who is the only center of 


RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 357 


perfection. The varying characters of men come, of 
necessity, from graduated departures from that center. 
The farther the circle extends, the farther men are from 
the central perfection; till the outer lines mark crimi¬ 
nality as the greatest degree of divergence. 

A thousand influences beset us from nationality and 
climate, from parentage and companionship, and from 
other sources innumerable. The weak yield to evil, 
which the strong can resist. Every one is governed 
mainly by what he conceives is his interest. No one is 
wise enough to judge always what is best for his inter¬ 
est. If every man’s reason were perfect, there would 
be no crime, because sound reason knows crime is not 
the door to happiness. It follows that every aberration 
from rectitude marks the exact deflection from perfect 
sanity of mind. Judicial decisions are modified by con¬ 
sideration of exciting causes and defective rationality. 
History acquits judges and peoples of criminal injustice 
in burning witches and heretics, on the plea of delusion 
by perverted reason. The insanity that was invisible 
to one age becomes visible to the clearer judgment of 
another age. 

There is reason to suspect, that, as we grow more en- 
lio-htened, we shall trace all crime to unsoundness of 
mind; the difference being, that, in some cases, it is 
visible, and, in other cases, invisible insanity. Surely he 
is wrong-headed \yho believes that happiness is the re¬ 
ward of crime ; certainly he is less sound than he who 
seeks happiness in virtue. 

Then all wrong doing comes of wrong reasoning, or 
of unreasoning impulses. Society puts restraint upon 
criminals for self-preservation; but, if we reason well, 
our prisons should be asylums for the cure and reforma- 


358 


THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 


tion of distempered minds. The treatment should be 
after the manner that temperance societies reform in¬ 
ebriates ; viz., convincing them that honesty is the best 
policy, and inducing them to enter into association, if 
possible, for mutual aid and moral support. 

a Men are but children of larger growth.” Never 
was a child reclaimed from vicious propensities by 
punishment. Wise parents aim at making deep roots 
for good principles by kindly appeal to the reason and 
to the affections of the young. They put the little fel¬ 
low on his honor. If he break a mirror with his forbid¬ 
den ball, he is quick to confess it; while the whipped 
child denies, or casts upon another, — any thing to 
escape punishment. It is only by being “ born again,” 
as Scripture expresses it, that criminals can be reclaimed. 
We must win their confidence as we do with children; 
seek out their good points that are dormant, but never 
entirely wanting; and address ourselves parentally to 
tlieir cultivation, uprooting the evil by stimulating the 
growth of the good. If Heaven rejoices ninety-fold 
over one repentant sinner, will it not greatly reward 
the instruments of his redemption ? 

“ The soul is God’s sweet breath : 

There’s purity e’en when it errs ; 

As sunshine broken, or a rill, 

Though turned astray, is sunshine still.” 


CONCLUSION. 

No revelation ever given to mankind can compare 
with God’s unmistakable command, that now reaches 
every soul of earth, and penetrates remotest heathen- 


KELIGIOUS ASPECT OF GOOD AND EVIL. 359 


dom. Every nation receives it, and obeys with alacrity; 
tor laws that come truly from the Great Spirit carry 
their own enforcement. And this is the command¬ 
ment : “ Go faster! ” 

Behold the accelerated speed of mechanic invention 
and human production; the electric telegraph, the fast 
propulsion of steam and iron ways, bringing all nations 
into neighborhood ! 

All the w T orld is educating itself to direct the quick¬ 
ened march of progress. The sun itself comes, a volun¬ 
teer in our quickened movement in aid of the finer arts, 
which else would lag behind; the earth responds by 
pouring out from its deepest caverns elements of new 
light and golden streams to drive the car of commerce, 
with rapid interchange, around the world; barriers of 
exclusion crumble before this providential mandate ; and 
opposing nations are forced to take up the faster pace. 

Turn the eye upon the kingdoms, and mark how old- 
time theories do surge to and fro, unsteady, and are 
getting to be respected of men no more. All the world 
is arming with new enginery of war, portending radical 
changes, quickened strife, and larger havoc of battle. 

Read well the signs, and you will see, that, from all 
this quickened and complex collision, there must come a 
vast production of evil as a concurrent necessity. 

While every thing is thus pressing forward, behold, 
religion lags, a stagnant pool, “ like the stillness of a 
torrent ere it dash below,” and is lost in the deep. 
Christianity lives for ever; but the dogmas of ancient 
ecclesiastic councils slumber and die. Indifference, like 
a moral drought, saps their growth ; and unbelief uproots 
them. “Watch and pray,” says the text: “Go to 
sleep,” says the sermon. The pulpit slumbers, and sin 


360 THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

gambols without. What a condition is this to be in 
when the moral world cries aloud for tenfold increase 
of religious activity! 

But chief among the changes affecting religion, and 
portending demand for doctrine that will bear sharp in¬ 
vestigation, is the instinct that pervades all civilized 
nations to educate the women equal to the men, to give 
them entrance to halls of science, and a voice in public 
affairs. 

It seems to be the initial work that is to give the 
world a more intellectual race of men and women un¬ 
der the law of progressive development; and it seems 
to indicate that women, who chiefly sustain religion, will 
desire a share in the formation of creeds. 

When women bring to the investigation their sharper 
wits, and their deeper reverence for the Saviour’s actual 
words and plainly-spoken doctrines, the attempted im¬ 
provements of old-time pagan sympathizers will be sum¬ 
marily rejected; and our religion, purged of its corrup¬ 
tions, will enter with new life into the current of human 
progress. The Church has yet the power to lead the 
needed reformation. If it fail to arrest the prevailing 
defection, the people, with instinctive yearning for re¬ 
ligious doctrine, will gather around newly-inspired 
teachers, that Providence has, hitherto, ever raised up 
under such circumstances. If our suggestions can be 
bettered, may Heaven, through more gifted evangelists, 
point out the better way to win men from the all-per¬ 
vading indifference and unbelief, to hearty faith, and 
religious competency for the great work that is required 
of Christianity in this age of enlightenment! 


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